Finding Freedom Summer in Oxford, Ohio

Recipient: Berman, Mary Jane (Oxford, OH 45056 USA) in affiliation with Miami University, Oxford

Goal: Planning for the development of an exhibition, a self-guided walking tour, and public programs about the Mississippi Summer Project in Oxford, Ohio, which prepared Civil Rights activists for the 1964 Freedom Summer.

Description: The Center for American & World Cultures, Miami University, Oxford, OH, requests support to plan an aggregate of programs about the events of Freedom Summer 1964, some of which took place at Western College for Women. The project includes the creation of: -An exhibition focusing on training for the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964 in Oxford, OH, its role in local, regional, and national history and culture, its impact on other civil rights. struggles and legislation, and its overall legacy for Americans today in our understanding of community engagement, active citizenship, and conflict and resolution processes. -The development of building markers, way-finding means, and a self-guided brochure tour of the Western College historic buildings where Freedom Summer training occurred -Public and educational programs that include lectures, films, discussions, and arts-based programs. We request funds from NEH to support consultant fees and the creation of a project manager staff position.

Grant: 194725 / BP-50118-09,   Category: Museum Studies or Historic Preservation,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Moton 2011: The Permanent Exhibit

Recipient: Ward, Lacy (Farmville, VA 23901 USA) in affiliation with Robert R. Moton Museum Inc.

Goal: Planning for permanent exhibitions and a website examining the 1951 student protest at the Robert Russa Moton High School in Prince Edward County and the broader history of public school desegregation in Virginia.

Description: Moton 2011 is the Robert Russa Moton Museum’s plan to install a series of permanent exhibit galleries within the auditorium and five classrooms of the former R. R. Moton High School which will chronicle Prince Edward County, Virginia’s thirteen-year struggle for Civil Rights in Education. The galleries will be dedicated in 2011 in observance of the 60th anniversary of the April 23, 1951 Moton student strike which precipitated the County’s Civil Rights Era saga.

Grant: 194751 / BP-50133-09,   Category: Political Science,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

The Ancient Ohio Trail

Recipient: Hancock, John E (Cincinnati, OH 45221-0016 USA) in affiliation with University of Cincinnati (Cincinnati, OH 45221 USA)

Goal: Planning for a website and other digital products that would permit visitors to download to portable digital devices customized, in-depth tour information regarding ancient Native American earthwork sites in the Ohio Valley.

Description: CERHAS will plan and prototype an integrated suite of interpretive materials that will guide tourists and the general public among the Ohio Valley regions ancient earthwork sites and other related points of interest. Our materials will improve and synthesize site interpretations and media resources already created by CERHAS and its key partners, plus expand content and design into new areas and new media. We will create new, integrated print, web, and downloadable audio and visual material for multiple portable media devices able to deliver deep, layered, diverse, and memorable interpretive perspectives, keyed to the direct experiences of tourists through all phases of their travel. We envision an integrated, portable, custom, virtual, regional site museum experience for travelers, allowing them to visualize the regions sites in advance familiarizing themselves with the many earthworks, routes, and towns as thoroughly as they wish.

Grant: 196622 / BP-50135-09,   Category: Interdisciplinary,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present, and Future

Recipient: Romano, Daniella (Brooklyn, NY 11205 USA) in affiliation with Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp.

Goal: Planning of an exhibition in a restored building of the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard that would present the Yard's history and its influence on the growth of Brooklyn and New York City.

Description: From establishment as New York Naval Shipyard by the U.S. Navy in 1801 until decommissioning in 1966, the Brooklyn Navy Yard has been closed to the public. Operating today as an industrial park, security and privacy remain key to the Yard's tenants however, public outcry for access to the site's rich history has prompted Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation to restore a historic building on the Yard and design an exhibition open to the public. Now in its fourth year of planning, BNYDC seeks NEH support for three elements in the development of the exhibition, The Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present and Future: 1. Documented design of the exhibition, including preliminary graphics and image research; 2. Exhibition text development, review, and evaluation; and 3. Testing and refinement of a crucial electronic interactive component: an interactive table map illustrating the evolving overview across time of the changing functions and built environment of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Grant: 197032 / BP-50148-09,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Interpreting Munroe Tavern as the "Museum of the British" in Lexington, MA

Recipient: Bennett, Susan (Lexington, MA 02420 USA) in affiliation with Lexington Historical Society (Lexington, MA 02173 USA)

Goal: Planning for a new interpretation of Munroe Tavern as the "Museum of the British" to broaden the understanding of Lexington, Massachusetts, at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Description: Munroe Tavern, temporary field headquarters of the British Army during the retreat from Concord to Boston on April 19, 1775, is one of three historic sites with important connections to the Battle of Lexington that are interpreted by the Lexington Historical Society. The NEH funded a consultation in 2007 that permitted the staff historian to research the British Army in America during the 1770s and its orders in April 1775, and engaged humanities scholars in identifying themes for the re-interpretation of Munroe Tavern. The Society now seeks a planning grant to develop very specific plans for the re-furnishing of the Tavern and use of outdoor space, new tour outlines and docent training, a sound room evoking the events of April 19, and a web site.

Grant: 197025 / BP-50141-09,   Category: History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Benjamin Franklin House Weekly Student Day

Recipient: Balisciano, Marcia (New York, NY 10024 USA) in affiliation with Benjamin Franklin House Foundation

Grant: 194801 / BP-50134-09,   Category: Education,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2009

Connecting People and Land Through the Legacy of Aldo Leopold

Recipient: Huffaker, Wellington "Buddy" (Baraboo, WI 53913 USA) in affiliation with Aldo Leopold Foundation

Goal: Planning to develop a new interpretation of the Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm, home of a key figure in the 20th-century conservation movement.

Description: The Aldo Leopold Foundation seeks an IAHP planning grant to support the development of a master interpretive plan for the Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm, and nearby Aldo Leopold Legacy Center. The Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm is a very significant place not only in Wisconsin's landscape, but also in America's conservation history. This place was the setting and inspiration for his classic A Sand County Almanac (1949), one of the most beloved and respected books about the environment ever published. We have a broad array of advisors to help us with project implementation. Our ultimate project goal is to interpret Leopold's legacy at the historic Shack and Farm without compromising the rustic nature of the landscape. We aim to complement that visitor experience with interpretation at the green-built Legacy Center, which will encourage people to not only think deeply about Leopold, but also about people, land and the connections between them-- throughout history and into the 21st century.

Grant: 191785 / BP-50110-08,   Category: Humanities,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Becoming the First State: An Interpretive Plan for Dover, Delaware

Recipient: Brenchley, Elaine (Dover, DE 19901 USA) in affiliation with Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation (Dover, DE 19901-7305 USA)

Goal: Planning for expanded living history programs, self-guided audio tours, and wayside signage interpreting the period from 1774 to 1792 within First State Heritage Park.

Description: Planning for new interpretation of the eighteen-year period (1774-92) surrounding 1787, when Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Delaware's experience of these two decades has remained relatively unexplored by scholars and insufficiently interpreted to the general public. This project examines the impact of the period on Delaware's little known leaders and on the ordinary people who lived and worked in Dover during this critical historical moment. Exploring themes of societal divisions and discord, the interpretive approach will combine living history, technology-assisted interpretation and interpretive waysides.The spatial focal point is the natural and built environment of the Dover Green National Register Historic District, the historic core of Delaware's capital city. It was here that the Golden Fleece Tavern, where the constitution was ratified, was located and it is here where several significant eighteenth- century structures still stand.

Grant: 189899 / BP-50065-08,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Rear Yard Exhibit

Recipient: Epps, Renee (New York, NY 10002 USA) in affiliation with Lower East Side Tenement Museum

Goal: Planning an exhibit and programs interpreting the backyard as used by tenants from 1864 to 1905, exploring themes of urban sanitation, technological change, and social reform, and the uses of rear yards as communal spaces.

Description: The Lower East Side Tenement Museum seeks $40,000 from the National Endowment for Humanities to cover part of the costs associated with hiring outside consultants needed to continue planning the Rear Yard Exhibit. The Rear Yard Exhibit will recreate the backyard and privies (toilets used by tenement residents from 1864 until 1905) behind the Museum's landmark tenement building at 97 Orchard Street. To date, the Museum has researched and restored five apartments in 97 Orchard Street, creating "period apartments" that offer the public a glimpse into the experiences of the diverse immigrant families who lived in the building between 1863 and 1935. The Rear Yard Exhibit will enhance Museum visitors' understanding of the immigrant experience on the Lower East Side in the 19th century by providing visitors with an in-depth understanding of how immigrants existed day-to day. The exhibit will also explore themes such as urban sanitation and the communal aspects of rear yards.

Grant: 189905 / BP-50071-08,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Adapting Billings Farm & Museum as a Heritage Gateway Destination: A Comprehensive Exhibit and Program Plan

Recipient: Donath, David A (Woodstock, VT 05091 USA) in affiliation with Billings Farm & Museum

Goal: Planning for reinstallation of a permanent exhibition at Historic Billings Farm and development of accompanying public and educational programs and audio tours interpreting Vermont's rural heritage.

Description: The Billings Farm & Museum (BF&M), Woodstock, Vermont, seeks support to advance creative development of its Heritage Gateway initiative: a five-year plan to extend its interpretation, programs, and identity to actively engage its historical landscape context. Billings Farm and the surrounding region of east central Vermont form an agrarian working landscape that encapsulates the story of the evolution of a "settled" traditionally Yankee rural society in Vermont after the Civil War through the late 20th century emergence of a "neo-rural" countryside. By broadening its operation, BF&M will fill the unmet need for a physical and intellectual portal to the state's historic and cultural geography. Humanities scholars, interpretive specialists, and creative consultants will collaborate with project staff on plans for the reinstallation of BF&M's permanent exhibition and revision of on-site tours and activities, plus the preliminary development of driving/walking audio tour programs.

Grant: 191761 / BP-50088-08,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Putting Portsmouth on the Map: Cultural Center, Historic Trail, and Heritage Tourism

Recipient: Watters, David H (Durham, NH 03824 USA) in affiliation with University of New Hampshire, Durham

Goal: Planning of a permanent exhibition of the city's history for a new cultural center, enhancements to the Black Heritage Trail, creation of a new Footsteps of Washington Trail, and a website to include downloadable maps, podcasts, and other pertinent tour materials.

Description: UNH's Center for New England Culture and the Portsmouth Historical Society propose to develop a permanent exhibit of the history of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to revise and enhance the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail, and to create a new Footsteps of Washington Trail. This plan will facilitate cultural tourism and community interest in history. Portsmouth is a unique site for heritage tourism, since it has been a microcosm of American history over four centuries in which the very fabric of each period is still present, but it needs a comprehensive and new interpretation that will present this history to the public. The proposed exhibit will provide orientation for all the historic sites in Portsmouth. The exhibit and accompanying interpretive media and self-guiding materials will focus on important themes in American history, expecially the Revolutionary and early national eras, and the era of immigration and international conflicts, 1890 - 1920.

Grant: 191767 / BP-50094-08,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

American Precision Museum Interpretive Plan

Recipient: Brown, Carrie (Windsor, VT 05089 USA) in affiliation with American Precision Museum

Goal: Planning of a major permanent exhibition on the rise of precision manufacturing and its importance in American industrial history.

Description: At a site uniquely positioned to tell the story of precision manufacturing in America, this project will interpret the American Precision Museum through a major, permanent exhibition on the history of the machine tool and the rise of the ?American System? of manufacturing.This will be the first major, permanent exhibition to explore Vermont?s industrial history in any depth, and it will overturn many a visitor?s pre-conceived notions about New England industry. Building upon one of the finest collections of machine tools in the nation, the museum will develop an exhibition that not only illuminates the machines but also explores the lives of the people who made and used them. Windsor is considered to be the cradle of precision manufacturing. The machines and systems designed and built here made mass production possible. Mass production in turn has made possible abundant food and clothing, improved sanitation and health care, and the leisure for universal education.

Grant: 189894 / BP-50060-08,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Festivals of Sail and Steam: The Hudson-Fulton & Champlain Celebrations of 1909

Recipient: Johnson, Kathleen E (Tarrytown, NY 10591-0000 USA) in affiliation with Historic Hudson Valley (Tarrytown, NY 10591 USA)

Grant: 191686 / BP-50082-08,   Category: American Studies,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Visitor and Educational Services

Recipient: Nichols, Jeffrey L (Hartford, CT 06105 USA) in affiliation with Mark Twain House

Grant: 193673 / BP-50111-08,   Category: Humanities,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2008

The National Square: An Audio Walking Tour of Lafayette Square

Recipient: Malone-France, Katherine (Washington, DC 20006 USA) in affiliation with National Trust for Historic Preservation (Washington, DC 20036 USA)

Goal: Planning for an audio walking tour, guidebooks, signage, and a website on the history of Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C.

Description: Planning for the 45-minute audio walking tour of Lafayette Square includes development of a script; design of guidebooks, signage, website and rack card; and an implementation plan. The tour will cover themes of evolution of the Executive Branch, enslavement and Reconstruction, cultural life in the nation's capital, and the historic preservation movement in the U.S.

Grant: 179803 / BP-50016-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

Telling River Stories

Recipient: Nunnally, Patrick D (St. Paul, MN 55108 USA) in affiliation with University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA)

Goal: Planning of site tours, exhibits, a website, and signage along the Mississippi riverfront in the Twin Cities to interpret the influence of the river on life in several historic, urban neighborhoods.

Description: This proposal requests $45,000 to partially fund a $75,000 planning phase of a project aimed at developing historical interpretive installations along the Mississippi River in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. These installations will identify the early communities of Native Americans, immigrants, and African Americans that have lived successively in a selected number of specific sites on the river, and convey illustrative stories about the role of the river in the lives of the people who lived in these communities. It will focus on the themes of life on the river, examining housing and domestic life, working life, and issues of gender, race, and ethnicity. This project is a collaborative effort of several units of the University of Minnesota--the Institute for Advanced Study, the Urban Studies Program, and the Mississippi River Design Initiative--led by Dr. Judith A. Martin, chair of the Urban Studies Program, and Dr. Patrick Nunnally, with the Mississippi River Initiative.

Grant: 184893 / BP-50038-07,   Category: Urban Studies,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

The Civil War Home Front in Vermont

Recipient: Gilbert, Peter A (Montpelier, VT 05602 USA) in affiliation with Vermont Humanities Council

Goal: Planning for a website and statewide educational and public programs to interpret approximately 100 locations significant to Vermont's participation in the Civil War.

Description: The Vermont Humanities Council (VHC) seeks a planning grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a project in anticipation of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which begins in 2011, less than five years from now. The Council plans a wide-ranging effort to identify sites throughout the state related to the home front of the Civil War, interpret their history for the public, help heritage tourists locate these sites, and enable educators to make use of these sites in the teaching of history. So far as is known, no state in which major fighting did not occur has ever undertaken such a comprehensive inventory of its Civil War sites. VHC hopes this project will serve as a model for similar efforts in other states.

Grant: 184896 / BP-50041-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

Creating Holyoke: Immigrants' and Migrants' Search for Community

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

Goal: Planning for three coordinated exhibits in Holyoke, Massachusetts, that approach urban history through the experiences of immigrant groups.

Grant: 185060 / BP-50055-07,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

Preparing an Interpretive Plan for the Bethlehem Steel Site

Recipient: Gillette, Howard F (Camden, NJ 08102 USA) in affiliation with Rutgers University, Camden

Goal: Planning for a symposium and collaboration with scholars to create an interpretive master plan for the abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, examining local industrial history.

Description: The Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities at Rutgers University-Camden in partnership with the city of Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley Industrial Heritage Coalition seeks funds to develop an interpretive plan through a conference and associated collaboration that will bring national scholarly expertise and wide professional perspective to an ongoing community-based effort to preserve and interpret the abandoned Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem, PA. The plan will build on work MARCH has done in cooperation with the city and the LVIHC in development of a complex public-private collaboration designed to (1) save the historic site from demolition, (2) adapt and resue surviving buildings for cultural purposes and economic revitalization and, (3) create pervasive interpretation on the site and in the surrounding areas of local industrial history spanning several centuries.

Grant: 184900 / BP-50045-07,   Category: History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2007

Exhibit Planning and Interpretation of the Ellis Island Hospitals: Phase 2, Planning

Recipient: Hartman, Dorothy W (Budd Lake, NJ 07828 USA) in affiliation with Save Ellis Island (Mt. Olive, NJ 07828 USA)

Goal: Planning for a permanent exhibit on immigrant healthcare to be installed in rooms of a laundry/hospital outbuilding that include a ward, an operating room, and a morgue.

Grant: 179789 / BP-50005-06,   Category: American History,   Division: Public Programs,   Year Awarded: 2006