WASHINGTON (June 10, 2010)—The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced today $20 million in grant awards and offers for 120 humanities projects. New funding supports a wide variety of projects nationwide, including traveling exhibitions, collaborative research, scholarly editions, advanced scholarly training in digital humanities, digitization of historic newspapers, programming offered by state humanities councils, and preservation of cultural heritage collections.

This grant cycle highlights the breadth of high-caliber humanities projects supported by the NEH. Among the grants awarded are those that will advance the excavation and analysis of archeological remains of 18th-century slave communities in the Virginia Piedmont, allow for the digitization of 100,000 pages of Hawaiian newspapers dating from 1836, and support the preparation of an illustrated scholarly digital edition of the papers of Buffalo Bill Cody. Other grants will aid the development of environmental controls to protect the Folger Shakespeare Library’s valuable collection of Shakespeare and early modern European history materials, and enable scholars to collaborate on an English-language translation of a 2,000-year-old Chinese dictionary.

“Underlying the NEH grants announced today is our belief that democracy demands wisdom,” said NEH Chairman Jim Leach. “From state Chautauquas and book fairs to collaborations between major international research centers, scholars are encouraged to help nurture an informed citizenry with perspectives offered by history, literature, and philosophy.”

This award cycle, institutions and independent scholars in 43 states and the District of Columbia will receive NEH support. Complete state-by-state listings of grants are available below:

• Alabama to Montana (10-page PDF)
• Nebraska to Wyoming (11-page PDF).

Selected projects have received a We the People designation for their efforts to strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture. In this cycle, grants were awarded in the following categories:

• Collaborative Research Grants support original research undertaken by a team of two or more scholars or research coordinated by an individual scholar that, because of its scope or complexity, requires additional staff and resources beyond the individual’s salary.
• We the People Project Grants for State Humanities Councils support programs sponsored by state humanities councils that explore significant events and themes in American history and culture, and advance knowledge of the principles that define America.
• Institutes for Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities Grants provide scholars and advanced graduate students with the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of advanced technology tools and methodologies relevant to the humanities and to increase the number of humanities scholars using digital technology in their research.
• National Digital Newspaper Program Grants support the creation of a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922, from all states and U.S. territories.
• NEH on the Road Grants help small sites defray the cost of hosting an NEH traveling exhibition.
• Scholarly Editions and Translations Grants enable the preparation of editions and translations of significant literary, philosophical, and historical texts and documents that are currently inaccessible or available in inadequate editions.
• Sustaining Cultural Heritage Collections Grants help cultural institutions meet the complex challenge of preserving large and diverse holdings of humanities materials for future generations by supporting preventative conservation measures to prolong the useful life of collections.

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Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.