Eleven Preservation Projects in Seven States Awarded $4.5 Million to Support Stabilization of Humanities Collections

Five earn recognition as We the People projects

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that cultural institutions in seven states will receive $4.5 million for 11 projects to preserve and stabilize humanities collections. Five of these have been named We the People projects, a special recognition by the NEH for model projects that will preserve resources that are critical to the study, teaching, and understanding of American history and culture.

"Over the past 14 years, NEH has awarded more than $45 million to stabilize collections representing more than 33 million archaeological, ethnographic, and historical objects important for research, education, and public programming in the humanities," said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole.

Stabilization grants help museums, libraries, archives, and historical organizations preserve their humanities collections through support for improved housing and storage, environmental conditions, security, lighting, and fire protection, which remain the most effective preservation measures institutions can employ to ensure the longevity of their cultural collections.

The five institutions awarded NEH grants and recognized as We the People awards are the Connecticut Historical Society, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, and the Mark Twain House, all in Hartford; the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites for the Olana historic site in Waterford; and the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society, Inc., in De Smet, S.D.

Several projects have received offers of federal matching funds totaling $375,000; institutions receiving such offers must generate equivalent support from individual, foundation, or corporate donors.

Other cultural institutions receiving stabilization grants from NEH include the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Conn.; Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, Maine; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and the University of Texas, Austin. A complete list of the grants is available as a two-page PDF.

The Endowment's We the People initiative was announced by President Bush in a Rose Garden Ceremony in September 2002.