PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 4/6/2022

CONTACT: Zoë Van Nostrand – Marketing & Visitor Experience Coordinator

community@thehistorycenter.net

607-273-8284 ext. 229 (W-Sat 10-5pm)

The History Center in Tompkins County Awarded Pandemic Recovery Grant from the American Historical Association to Support Oral History Collection

ITHACA NY –The History Center in Tompkins County has been awarded funding from the American Historical Association’s Grants to Sustain and Advance the Work of Historical Organizations Program, which provides relief to institutions adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This opportunity was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021

“COVID-19 continues to have significant financial impacts on The History Center, and museums across the country. We’re thrilled that the American Historical Association has stepped up to support institutions like ours in this critical time of need and are grateful for their emphasis in prioritizing archival work on projects like ours.”

• -       Ben Sandberg – Executive Director of The History Center

The History Center in Tompkins County will use the awarded funds to support the archival processing, digital preservation, and public sharing of our Oral Histories of Tompkins County collection (thehistorycenter.net/Oral-History). Our oral history collection represents an important part of the historical record we steward on behalf of our community. The content of these oral histories spans decades, and provide an important method to understand the past in people’s own words. Their value to us today, and to future generations in Tompkins County, cannot be overstated. This project allows us to fully accession a significant number of our existing oral history interviews, and then share them with the public on our institutional platforms of ArchiveGrid, SoundCloud, and New York Heritage. This project will allow us to more fully process the interviews included in the sub-collections: Asian Diaspora, Black Experience, Gender & Sexuality, Indigenous Experience, Religion & Belief, Stories of Immigration, and Women’s Voices as well as our general collections.

The History Center is one of fifty grant recipients, which include site-based organizations, membership associations, and history departments at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Awardees will implement short-term projects that explore new ideas or build on experiments initiated during the pandemic—from online programming or publications to using new technologies or expanding audiences and accessibility.

“The past two years have been challenging for small history organizations,” said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. “Our awardees have made compelling cases for their status as essential resources, making vital contributions to public culture. The American Historical Association (AHA) is pleased to provide funding for our colleagues to promote historical work, historical thinking, and the presence of history in public life.” 

 

“NEH is grateful to the American Historical Association for administering American Rescue Plan funding to help history organizations around the country recover from the pandemic,” said NEH Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo). “Small museums, historical societies, college history departments, historic sites, and community archives are essential to keeping and telling America’s story. These ARP awards will allow these institutions to develop new programs and resources that will expand access to this important history.”

To learn more about the The History Center’s grant project please visit: thehistorycenter.net/grants or  www.historians.org/awards-and-grants/past-recipients/aha-neh-sharp-grant-recipients.

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About The History Center: The History Center in Tompkins County is a generation-to-generation education and research center focused on engaging the public with the history of Tompkins County (located in the ancestral and contemporary lands of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ' Nation) and the Finger Lakes region. The History Center helps people use the tools of history to understand the past, gain perspective on the present, and play an informed role in shaping the future. The History Center is located within the Tompkins Center for History & Culture, a collaborative visitor center and event space on the Ithaca Commons. Learn more at thehistorycenter.netand follow @TompkinsHistory on any platform.

About the American Historical Association: Founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies, the American Historical Associationprovides leadership for the discipline and promotes the critical role of historical thinking in public life. The Association defends academic freedom, develops professional standards, supports innovative scholarship and teaching, and helps to sustain and enhance the work of historians. As the largest membership association of professional historians in the world (nearly 12,000 members), the AHA serves historians in a wide variety of professions and represents every historical era and geographical area.

About the National Endowment for the Humanities:Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, 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 www.neh.gov.

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