Past Grants Awarded

A summer program for high school students in Holyoke and Springfield.

Inventory and catalogue the Civil War-related materials in the city's historical collection.

Preparation for creating a database of all known workers at the Schwamb framing mill.

Expand the focus of an oral-history-and-photography project beyond Ashfield to include five other hill towns.

Third annual AIA-MOS Archaeology Fair at the Museum of Science in the Fall of 2009.

Resource guide and a script for a trolley car tour, called "Roxbury Then and Now."

A series of programs on two themes: equal access to quality education; and India in cultural, historical, and geopolitical perspectives.

An archive and documentary project that focuses on the Gloucester Sicilian fishing community known locally as "the Fort." The Down the Fort project seeks to create a permanent record of the neighborhood's history, and to open a multimedia channel for exploring the story of Sicilian immigration, the hard working families and members of the fishing industry, and the neighborhood's profile in a changing urban landscape.
(project website)

Teaching for Global Understanding in the 21st Century, a week long summer institute for K-12 teachers in Massachusetts.

Presentations about the colorful history and varied forms of dance.

One of six US consensus conferences for laypeople on the issue of global warming.

Public programming to accompany the exhibit of South Danvers war correspondence.

Archival research and the acquisition of WWI footage shot by the US Army Signal Corps for a documentary.

"The Nine Who Dared: Crisis in Little Rock" an interactive play for middle and high school students about the desegregation crisis of 1957, presented at the John Adams Courthouse.

Trailer and script for "Harvard's Black 17", a documentary film about the African-American men enrolled in the class of 1963 under Harvard's first program of affirmative action.

Marc P. Smith's new play about Polish resistance hero Jan Karski, who tried to stop the Holocaust by reporting to world leaders on the Warsaw Ghetto and the Belzec extermination camp.

An exhibition of oil portraits of American soldiers and civilians who have returned from the theaters of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, at the Springfield Armory Museum; and related programming and materials.
(project website)

An exhibit about the fight over slavery as it played out in Springfield, including the role of the African-American community, John Brown and the arms industry.

Educator stipends and printed program materials for Massachusetts youth visiting the Boston waterfront to view the tall ships festival this summer.

A multimedia exhibit featuring a changing selection of oral histories of Wampanoag elders taped during the past twenty years.

A public symposium centered on part of a PBS series on the Vietnam War. The discussion will be filmed and made available on the Web.

A partnership centered on a production of Much Ado About Nothing at Hibernian Hall involving eight Roxbury schools and organizations serving at-risk youth.

A hands-on, primary source teacher education program on Native American history that utilizes artifacts from the Robbins Museum, and allows participants to design their own curricula.

The launch of the museum's new identity and permanent core exhibit, which will use the words of "Old Ironsides" crew members of to convey life at sea during the War of 1812.

A web site based on its Boston Harbor Shipwreck Chart and companion book, "Shipwrecks and Nautical Lore of Boston Harbor," including primary source documents and images for each wreck.
(project website)

A historic site at the location of the old Town Common to be created by adding paths and signage as well as stabilizing cellar holes and dug wells that surrounded the old Meetinghouse.

Public humanities programming on Lafayette Day, including a reenactment of the welcoming speech given the Revolutionary War hero Marquis in 1824, in the Senate Chamber, and other ceremonies and reenactments involving D-Day veterans.

A pair of traveling exhibits on the history of the Minot Ledge Lighthouse and the story of the underwater archaeological search for its remains.

An original play about the life of women's suffrage activist Victoria Woodhull, to focus in part on the adultery scandal referred to as the Beecher-Tilton Affair.

Third and fifth grade curriculum units that use local history materials on colonial life, maritime industry, the War of 1812, and the life of Katherine Lee Bates.

Identification and research of African Americans buried at Forest Hills and incorporation of the findings into a walking tour.

Research and interpretation of the Society's collection of clothes used by women in the rural community of Westport during the nineteenth century.

Research on a collection of Native American artifacts from the Rose Farm area of Corn Hill in Truro, and provide interpretive material for scholars and visitors.

Research on North Sunderland's relation to the natural resources of the Connecticut River, incorporating insights from natural and environmental history in a historic tour.

Pre-production of a two-part documentary telling the story of the military draft. Project treatment, full proposal and a promo.

Support of various programs related to "Fitting Out," a new exhibit focusing on the shoreside industries that supported the local fishing fleet circa 1900. Includes production of a training packet for docents, equipment design for docent use, production of an activity guide and the organization of a lecture series.

Inventory of the Cutthyhunk Historical Society's collection of materials from local shipwrecks off the Elizabeth Islands.

Inventory of artifacts and documents in public collections across the three counties of the Pioneer Valley related to Valley residents who journeyed to California as part of the California Gold Rush.

Inventory of the Ellis Family collection, a recent donation of 200 items from the Ellis Family of Westwood, to be used as the basis for a major exhibition at the Westwood Historical Society in the fall of 2009.

Production of a short web film template and launch of a website focusing on the needs of immigrants seeking citizenship in the United States.