Between 2006 and 2010, institutions and individuals in Connecticut received $9.4 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Connecticut Humanities Council for projects that explore the human endeavor and preserve our cultural heritage. Below are some examples.
- Yale University received $700,000 through two grants for a long-term collaborative project to produce a comprehensive edition of Benjamin Franklin’s papers and writings. Thirty-eight of forty-seven projected volumes have been published, with thirty-seven available online. Papers of Benjamin Franklin is scheduled to be the first completed work of its kind on an American Founder.
- The lack of published primary sources on Connecticut’s Native Americans is being addressed by The New England Indian Papers Series, a project of Yale University, the Connecticut State Library, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Massachusetts Archives, and the British National Archives. With the support of a $250,000 grant, these partners are producing a digital archive whose first installment includes 1,471 documents that will be publically available online.
- A $38,000 planning grant will support reinterpretation of two historic structures in Mystic Seaport. The George Greenman House and the Seventh Day Baptist Church possibly have ties to the Underground Railroad. Mystic Seaport Museum will assume half of project costs.
- The Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, received a $149,836 grant for Mark Twain and the “Impolite Nation”: Using Twain’s Work to Teach About Race in America, two one-week workshops attended by 100 teachers.
- Leveraging a $250,000 challenge grant, Fairfield University has raised $1.02 million thus far in private funds to endow a new art museum in the campus’s signature building, Bellarmine Hall, which houses a collection focusing on medieval and Renaissance art.
- A literary study examining the everyday writings of former slaves during the era of emancipation was the subject of a $50,400 fellowship awarded to Christopher Hager, a professor at Trinity College, Hartford. A book introducing readers to this largely neglected moment of African-American writing is also planned.
- As recommended in a conservation assessment, the Bridgeport Public Library received a $6,000 grant to acquire storage cabinets for its collection of circus posters. They are part of a circus history collection that includes the papers of longtime Bridgeport resident P. T. Barnum.
- The Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center received a $10,000 grant to support “Munootash: Baskets and Community in Southern New England,” a traveling exhibition of Native American baskets from the 1800s and 1900s.
- The Connecticut Humanities Council advises state cultural institutions through their award-winning Heritage Resource Center, which provides online resources for heritage professionals working on audience evaluation, new media, and financial planning.
- Conceived and produced by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Connecticut Experience is an Emmy-winning series of video documentaries that range from the state’s Native American history to its lesser known Tobacco Valley.