Past Grants Awarded

A one-hour documentary for Public Television that explores and life and ideas of Erik H. Erikson - the psychoanalyst who developed the concept of identity and, most famously, the identity crisis.

The planning phase for a new Native American exhibition focusing on and in collaboration with many New England tribes.

An exhibit, symposium on the African American heritage of the Berkshires and a celebration of the life of Elizabeth Freeman.

A study of the families of wealth and prestige who came to Falmouth in the 1880-1920's and who left behind graceful mansions and their family names on the streets, ponds and landmarks.

Comprehensive inventory of the Devotion House, the headquarters of the Brookline Historical Society.

Inventory of the Brockton Shoe Museum collection.

A study of the collections related to the second generation of the Phillips family culminating in a public lecture: From Sail to Rail: The Phillips Family After Salem's Golden Age of Sail and a written body of research material.

Reckoning with the Parkers: Three Generations of Artisan Trade in Colonial and Early Republic Lexington.

Support for transportation costs for 10 performances of the interactive historical drama, The Trial of Anthony Burns, in collaboration with the Revere Public Schools. Funds will offset costs so that 500 students in grades 9-12 can visit Orchard House and experience this program.

Production grant as partial funding for a two-hour national public television documentary about the social history of the banjo. MFH funds will be used for the Massachusetts-based topics in the program.

Pre-production grant for a series of ten films about women in the American past.

Funds to support the pre-production of Spirit of Providence, a documentary television program about the Sisters of Providence, a small order of Catholic Sisters from Holyoke, MA, who have made a great impact in establishing non-profit healthcare institutions and social services in their communities.

Funds for the research, production and editing of a documentary film examining social change at Saint Patrick's, a working-class Catholic parish in Lawrence, MA experiencing dramatic changes as immigrants from Latin America and Asia move to the neighborhood.

Humanities portion of the 8th annual African American Festival in Worcester, MA, including an exhibition at the Worcester Public Library, lectures and a panel discussion.

Exhibition using the 150th anniversary of Frederick Douglass' My Bondage and My Freedom and Melville's Benito Cereno as a starting point for exploring concerns such as the reach and limits of democracy, the nature of freedom, the role of race in the America and the place of the U.S. in the world.

Exhibit on Eugene O'Neill in Provincetown.

Lecture and discussion series investigating the political and artistic issues raised by MASS MoCA's exhibition Cai Guo-Qiang: Inopportune.

Reading and discussion program about Islam (formerly a council conducted program).

Reading and book discussion group examining mystery novels.

Funds to develop a plan for exhibits and related activities, as well as a strategy for obtaining funding for the Roxbury Center for the Arts at Hibernian Hall - a product of the overall rehabilitation of Hibernian Hall in Dudley Square, which has served as a center for community culture in Roxbury and Greater Boston.

Development of a social studies curriculum material to present the flourishing trade that Massachusetts ports had with different ports of India for public schools.

Two-part symposium open to the public on Jews and the Culture of the Tango, focusing on the tango as a rich repository of the worldview and social situation of Yiddish-speaking Jews in the first half of the 20th century, both in Argentina and Eastern Europe.

Exhibit Production Grant to build an interpretive and interactive exhibit on the William Skimmer and Sons Manufacturing Company and their part in the US silk industry, 1850-1962.

Development of an interpretive exhibit that will give insight into the culture of the people whose livelihood depended upon the Vincie N., a commercial fishing boat built in 1936 and fished by the same Gloucester family for over 50 years.

Exhibit of artifacts and oral histories telling the story of the emergence of social service policy and delivery in Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Reading and discussion series about Islam.

A reading and discussion series and film/discussion series to accompany an exhibit of American West artifacts.

A videotaped oral history project about the five villages of Montague, produced in honor of Montague's 250th anniversary. The programs will air on a local access television station in late 2004.

The distribution grant will cover the production of a high school teacher's guide to accompany the documentary, design and printing of a poster to promote local screenings, and film festival entry costs.

A series of five "moving lecture" bus tours highlighting Roxbury's history, art and culture, led by experts in their fields.

An oral history project that will utilize interviews with residents of neighborhoods that abut the Concord River in Lowell. The end products will be a lengthy oral history document, a Concord River Greenway brochure, and historical signage.

A one-woman play about Abby Kelley Foster.

The designing of a website for the Royall House, the only home in New England with preserved slave quarters.

A UMass-published anthology containing the articles upon which the lectures for Historic Northampton's lecture series commemorating the 350th anniversary year of the city of Northampton were based.

A 90-minute documentary film on the little known political side of Theodor Seuss Geisal, a Springfield native.

A documentary investigating the culture of debt in America.

A series of educational public programs to enhance the Witch House's role as a center for community involvement and local history. The Witch House is the only historic building in Salem with direct ties to the witchcraft trials of 1692.

A library reading and discussion series.

A series of public presentations focusing on the oral and literary traditions of the Wampanoag people.

The publication of a revised and expanded version of the African American Heritage Trail book that will include information on more sites on Martha's Vineyard.