In Pursuit of Freedom

Recipient: Fermoile, Kate (Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA) in affiliation with Brooklyn Historical Society

Goal: Implementation of a multifaceted program on the history of abolitionism in Brooklyn: including three exhibitions, permanent historic markers, walking tours, a website, and public programs.

Description: In Pursuit of Freedom is a multifaceted public program tracing the history of abolitionism and the Underground Railroad in Brooklyn providing new resources for understanding this dramatic and profoundly significant chapter in American history. Comprising exhibitions, a permanently marked walking tour system, and a content-rich interactive web site, this landmark project will engage metropolitan and national audiences, transforming public memory of this critical chapter of the history of American freedom. The project will bring together the resources of three complimentary organizations the Brooklyn Historical Society, the Weeksville Heritage Center, and the Irondale Ensemble Project.

Grant: 197134 / BR-50090-09,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Jane Addams and the Hull-House Settlement: Redefining Democracy

Recipient: Lee, Lisa Yun (Chicago, IL 60607-7017 USA) in affiliation with University of Illinois at Chicago (Chicago, IL 60607 USA)

Goal: Implementation of a new core exhibition at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum to incorporate new scholarship about Hull-House, Jane Addams, and the settlement house movement, and to create opportunities for civic reflection and dialogue.

Description: Jane Addams Hull-House Museum at the University of Illinois-Chicago requests $400,000 to support the project, "Jane Addams and the Hull-House Settlement: Redefining Democracy." The project will implement findings from an NEH Planning Grant to redesign the Museum???s core exhibition in order to engage, educate and inspire diverse and intergenerational audiences. The new exhibit will draw on the most recent humanities scholarship about Jane Addams and other important Progressive Period reformers and create opportunities for civic reflection and dialogue. The total project budget is $787,000.

Grant: 194739 / BR-50065-09,   Category: History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Creating Holyoke: Immigrants' and Migrants' Search for Community

Recipient: Thibodeau, Kate Navarra (Holyoke, MA 01040 USA) in affiliation with Wistariahurst Museum / City of Holyoke

Goal: Implementation of a citywide project that tells the story of immigration to Holyoke, Massachusetts, through separate interpretive exhibitions at three museums, complemented by public programming, heritage tours, a teacher institute, and a website.

Description: Wistariahurst Museum, as lead organization, are seeking a National Endowment for the Humanities Implementation Grant for the final phase of a city-wide historic interpretation project entitled Creating Holyoke: Immigrants' and Migrants' Search for Community. The final project requires funding for: the final design and fabrication of three permanent exhibits at Holyoke Heritage State Park, Wistariahurst Museum and the Children's Museum at Holyoke on the themes of Opportunity and Industry, Recreation and Cultural Life, and Family Life; the further development and implementation of city-wide programming such as oral history projects, mural projects, teacher development workshops, way-finding signs to direct visitors to partner sites throughout the city, site based exhibit panels and walking/driving tours, an online resource for historical materials, and a documentary film.

Grant: 191777 / BR-50045-08,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Audio Tour Implementation

Recipient: Burdick, Todd (Pittsfield, MA 01201 USA) in affiliation with Hancock Shaker Village, Inc. (Pittsfield, MA 01202 USA)

Goal: Implementation of a new audio and podcast tour of the Hancock Shaker Village's 1,200-acre site.

Description: Hancock Shaker Village requests support for the implementation of an audio tour interpretation program delivered on site and offered in part on our website. The tour will enrich interpretation of the historic core of our 1,200 acre site, which includes 20 buildings, historic landscape, woodlands, barnyards, an historic cemetary, heirloom herb and vegetable gardens. The tour will also interpret areas of the Village which have not previously been interpreted for the public. HSV completed a consultation grant to outlilne humanities themes that will be most appropriately illuminated by the tour, and has identified other themes that have not been fully explored at the Village previously. HSV has researched, produced and installed interpretive signage on the site which will coordinate with the audio tour. The tours will help visitors understand and 'read' the site better, gaining knowledge of existing and lost structures.

Grant: 191778 / BR-50046-08,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Rotchev House Museum Exhibit at Fort Ross, California

Recipient: Kalani, Lyn (Jenner, CA 95450-9742 USA) in affiliation with Fort Ross Interpretive Association

Goal: Production of exhibits, displays, a walking tour, a museum panel, and a website tour for the Rotchev House Museum, home of the last manager of the Russian-America Company in California.

Description: The Rotchev House Museum exhibits will enhance understanding and appreciation of one of the oldest remnants of early European contact in Colonial California, the significant but little known legacy of the Russian-American Company settlement at Fort Ross 1812 - 1841. Exhibits will be created in the only surviving Russian-built structure in the continental United States. Research findings have enlightened us about the unrecognized Russian contributions to 19th century California history: they were the first to scientifically record the natural and cultural environment; introduce important technological innovations; and pursue harmonious relationships with the Native population. The Rotchev House exhibit will bring this information alive for the first time, and enlarge understanding about this era of history for a wide audience. The now empty rooms will be brought to life with displays and objects depicting the life of the last manager of Fort Ross and his wife and children.

Grant: 191776 / BR-50044-08,   Category: Museum Studies or Historic Preservation,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Nature, Culture, and History at the Grand Canyon

Recipient: Hirt, Paul W (Tempe, AZ 85287-4302 USA) in affiliation with Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ 85287 USA)

Goal: Implementation of an interactive web site and a DVD, audio tours, and other materials interpreting the natural and cultural history of the Grand Canyon landscape.

Description: The Grand Canyon is one of the most identifiable and remarkable landscapes on earth and the most internationally recognized symbol of nature in North America. But this grand natural wonder is also, importantly, a cultural landscape. Our aim in this project is to explore the cultural significance of the Grand Canyon to those people who have lived there or passed through during the past 400 years. We will also explore the ways that this unique place has influenced American science, art, environmental values, popular culture, tourism, and leisure. Our audiences will gain a deeper understanding of how the Grand Canyon is both a natural and a cultural landscape and how the relationship between people and place in this iconic American landscape has significantly shaped our nation?s history and values.

Grant: 186844 / BR-50028-07,   Category: American Studies,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

From Subjects to Citizens: Williamsburg and the American Revolution

Recipient: Horn, James P.P (Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776 USA) in affiliation with Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA 23187 USA)

Goal: Implementation of a web site about Williamsburg during the American Revolution and about our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the experimental democratic republic founded at that time.

Description: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation proposes to create a comprehensive website on the American Revolution. Showcasing Virginia and Williamsburg, the site will feature a broad range of descriptive material spanning the period from 1754 until 1800, documents, images, buildings and objects from our collections, themes developed in The Revolutionary City (the Foundation?s new daily on-site program), and innovative educational media. The website is anticipated to become a standard reference point for anyone interested in the Revolution, and more particularly in the role played by Williamsburg and Virginia.

Grant: 186854 / BR-50038-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

Permanent Interpretive Exhibition at the Home and Studio of Thomas Cole, Founder of the Hudson River School of Art

Recipient: Jacks, Elizabeth Bond (Catskill, NY 12414 USA) in affiliation with Greene County Historical Society, Thomas Cole Site

Goal: Implementation of a permanent interpretation of Thomas Cole's studio, including a film, docent tours, a web site, multimedia stations, publications, and public and educational programs exploring how Cole worked and his contribution to American art.

Description: The project will establish a new permanent exhibition at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, delivered through a range of elements ? an audiovisual presentation, interpretive panels, thematic displays of collection objects, interactive computer stations, printed educational materials, docent tours, and public programs ? that bring audiences new insights into America's cultural history through the seminal nineteenth-century artist Thomas Cole, who is considered the founder of the Hudson River School of art. The exhibition will focus on Cole's creative process, and will enable the visitor to experience it first hand, from hikes to the views in the nearby Catskill Mountains to a visit to the studio where the compositions came together. The exhibition will advance the public's knowledge of the origins of an art movement that dominated American visual arts between 1825 and 1875 -- a movement that formulated several of the underlying themes that still define America's cultural identity.

Grant: 186843 / BR-50027-07,   Category: Arts History & Criticism,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

Implementation of New Interpretive Program Elements at the National Historic Landmark Eldridge Street Synagogue

Recipient: Polland, Annie (New York, NY 10002 USA) in affiliation with Eldridge Street Project, Inc./Museum at Eldridge Street

Goal: Implementation of new interpretive exhibits, publications, and tours examining the architectural, religious, and cultural history of a historic synagogue and community in New York's Lower East Side.

Description: The Eldridge Street Project ("ESP")requests funds to complete the overall revisioning of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a National Historic Landmark on New York?s Lower East Side. A multi-million-dollar restoration of this historic site nears completion in late 2007, permitting greater numbers to visit, expanded access to building areas, and enhanced opportunities to inform and inspire. NEH funds are specifically requested to introduce new interpretative elements that will enrich the experience of visitors, readers of ESP publications and users of the organization?s website: (1) interpretive text and visual displays throughout the building, (2) audio interpretation, (3) a semi-permanent exhibit on the synagogue restoration and preservation process, (4) the development of three walking tours, and (5) publication of a series of scholarly essays in monograph form to accompany the building?s reopening.

Grant: 186845 / BR-50029-07,   Category: Jewish Studies,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

Mississippi Blues Commission Blues Trail

Recipient: McPherson, Bill (Indianola, MS 38751 USA) in affiliation with Mississippi Blues Commission

Goal: Implementation of a heritage trail, a website, and a CD-ROM interpreting the history of the blues in the Delta region of Mississippi.

Description: The Mississippi Blues Commission seeks funding for a portion of its Mississippi Blues Trail project. This portion of the Trail will commemorate and interpret 50 significant places in blues music history. The sites in this project will all be located in the Delta region of Mississippi, where a distinct form of the blues was born out of the post Civil War and Reconstruction oppression of African-Americans. The project also includes an associated website and CD-ROM containing a historical context and supplementary materials, such as recorded interviews and music, to enhance visitors’ understanding of humanities themes. The blues is one of America's unique musical forms, and the original Mississippi blues offers insights into black culture, interracial relations, the evolution of historic African musical forms and personal history. The Mississippi Blues Trail will address humanities issues that span the cultural geography and music history of a large area.

Grant: 181928 / BR-50005-06,   Category: Humanities,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2006

From Pursuit to Preservation: The Global Story of Whales and Whaling

Recipient: Shaw, Madelyn (New Bedford, MA 02740-6398 USA) in affiliation with New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford, MA 02740 USA)

Goal: Implementation of a permanent core exhibition with an audio tour about the human fascination with whales and the history of whaling in New Bedford, Massachusetts, within a global context.

Description: During much of the nineteenth century, whaling was one of America's major industries, reaching to the farthest corners of of the globe; and New Bedford, Mass. was its epicenter. The New Bedford Whaling Museum plans to interpret this compelling story in a long-term core exhibition, "From Pursuit to Preservation: the Global Story of Whales and Whaling." The exhibition will take full advantage of the ever-present human fascination with whales to explore a series of humanities themes relating to both American and world history. The exhibition is designed to incorporate a variety of presentation techniques and media to attract and engage a wide range of audiences. Scheduled to open in 2009, it will include more than 700 objects drawn from the Museum's rich and extensive collections that will be installed in a series of linked galleries totaling 20,000 square feet. The Museum is requesting an implementation grant of $350,000; the core exhibition's total cost is estimated at $3.5 million.

Grant: 181888 / BR-50019-06,   Category: History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2006

Back to Our Roots: A New Vision of New England Farming and Rural Life

Recipient: Hood, J. Edward (Sturbridge, MA 01566 USA) in affiliation with Old Sturbridge Village

Goal: Implementation of three permanent exhibitions that explore the market-driven transformation of rural life and landscape in New England farming, 1790-1840.

Description: OOld Sturbridge Village, a history center and outdoor museum of rural New England life, seeks support from the National Endowment for the Humanities for an implementation project, Back to Our Roots: A New Vision of Farming and Rural Life, aimed at creating a new integrated approach to the visitor’s experience and understanding of New England agriculture, rural life and rural landscape in the years of the Early Republic, 1790-1840. Three major exhibit venues will be created in buildings that are part of OSV's historical environment: Introduction to Farming at the Fenno Barn; Farmers and Markets at the Towne Barn, both on the Village Common; and a new Learning Center, housed in a museum-built service structure in the Village's Countryside area. The project will also upgrade and revise some existing exhibit signage in coordination with the new exhibit approach and create a family brochure/guide to farming and farm life.

Grant: 181902 / BR-50017-06,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2006

Underground Railroad in Vermont

Recipient: Williamson, Jane (Ferrisburgh, VT 05456 USA) in affiliation with Rokeby Museum

Goal: Implementation of a permanent exhibition presenting new scholarship on the history of the Underground Railroad in Vermont and northern New England.

Description: Rokeby Museum, a National Historic Landmark designated for its Underground Railroad history, seeks NEH funds to install a 2,500 square foot permanent exhibit in a new building to be constructed on site. The Museum has pioneered a more nuanced understanding of the Underground Railroad for nearly two decades and now wishes to make its story accessible to the large and diverse audience that is eager to hear it. Based on a rare cache of historic documents in the Museum collection, the exhibit tells the stories of Simon and Jesse, fugitives from Maryland and North Carolina who found their way to Rokeby in 1837, and of the Robinson family's deep religious beliefs carried into action, setting them both in the context of antebellum history. This exhibit will serve as a much-needed model of sensitive interpretation based on historical documents and the latest scholarship. NEH funds will be used for final consultation with humanities advisors, final text editing and design, and fabrication.

Grant: 181887 / BR-50018-06,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2006

The Captain John Smith Four Hundred Project: Retracing John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages

Recipient: McMullen, Dan Drewry (Chestertown, MD 21620 USA) in affiliation with Sultana Projects, Inc.

Goal: Implementation of a traveling exhibition and a series of public programs complementing the re-enactment of a three-month boat voyage around the Chesapeake Bay led by Captain John Smith in 1608.

Description: On June 2, 1608, only one year after the founding of Jamestown, Captain John Smith and fourteen English colonists set out in a small open boat, or “shallop” to explore the Chesapeake Bay. Their three-month voyage would have profound ramifications for the future settlement of the region and nation. On May 12, 2007, the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement, a crew of twelve modern explorers will board a 28-foot reproduction of Smith’s shallop and embark on a 121-day expedition to retrace his voyage. Departing from Jamestown, the shallop and her crew will host exhibitions in ports throughout the Chesapeake region, introducing millions of people to this important episode in our nation’s history. Known as the Captain John Smith Four Hundred Project, this endeavor is being developed by Sultana Projects, Inc., a non-profit organization based in Chestertown, Maryland, in conjunction with the National Geographic Society, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Conservation Fund.

Grant: 181931 / BR-50008-06,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2006