NEH Announces New Grant Program to Enhance Access to Original Documents of America’s Founding and Government

Rebels of '76, engraving
Photo caption

Library of Congress

Washington , DC (June 16, 2025)

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is pleased to announce a new grant program designed to preserve and improve public access to primary source materials relating to the United States’s Founding Era and the history of American government.

Created in honor of the upcoming 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026, NEH’s new Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition grant program offers up to $350,000 to individual institutions, and up to $750,000 to a consortium of organizations for efforts to conserve, digitize, catalog, transcribe, and expand access to important historical collections documenting the history of American independence and the establishment and evolution of American systems of government at the federal, state, and local levels. 

“The National Endowment for the Humanities has spent six decades preserving and providing public access to the country’s vital historical records,” said Acting NEH Chairman Michael McDonald. “NEH is excited to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary with a special focus on expanding access to the country’s foundational documents, to give scholars and citizens opportunity to rediscover the voices, ideas, and events that have defined our nation.”

The new funding opportunity will support activities such as conservation treatment, the rehousing, digitization, and indexing of archival records, rare publications, photographs, and sound recordings, among other invaluable material. 

NEH’s Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition funding opportunity responds to the January 29, 2025 Presidential Executive Order “Celebrating America’s Birthday,” and is part of the agency’s larger A More Perfect Union initiative focused on exploring America’s story and celebrating its 250 years of cultural heritage. 

NEH will offer the new Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition grant opportunity over two funding cycles, with application deadlines of September 4, 2025, and January 15, 2026. 

Interested applicants should consult the NEH website for additional information. Questions about the funding opportunity may be directed to preservation@neh.gov.   

 

National Endowment for the Humanities: The National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at neh.gov.

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