We the People Challenge Grants in United States History, Institutions, and Culture
This program supports projects that examine American history through the lens of the nation’s founding principles.  Proposals must demonstrate how the challenge grant would strengthen the institution’s ability to explore significant themes and events in American history, so as to advance knowledge of how the founding principles of the United States have shaped, and been shaped by, American history and culture for more than two hundred years. NEH welcomes proposals for programs that not only articulate the theories of governance and assertions of human rights that have embodied the founding principles, but also lead to deeper exploration of how these principles have been tested and interpreted since the Founding Era.
Guidelines URL:
http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/wtpchallenge.html

CZ-50181, Washington College:
C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.
Washington College, located in historic Chestertown, Maryland, was the first college founded in the new United States of America. The C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience is one of three “centers for excellence” at the college.  With its $500,000 2008 challenge grant the college is creating new programs at the Starr Center, most notably a residential fellowship program that supports outstanding research on the Founding Era and its legacy.  Independent scholars as well as academics are encouraged to apply to the Starr Center, and fellows’ projects are expected to contribute to the general public’s understanding of American history. The challenge grant supports the renovation of an eighteenth-century house (the 1735 Buck-Chambers House) that is used as a residence for fellows; the stipends and travel expenses of the fellows; and the program’s administrative and promotional costs.
Project URL: starrcenter.washcoll.edu/