National Coalition for History

On December 22, 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with members of the Historical Advisory Committee (HAC) to discuss the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series and concerns expressed by some current and former members of the HAC about the series. Secretary Rice stated her strong support for the FRUS series and told the group that she had asked an outside Review Team to provide recommendations by mid-January about how to ensure the FRUS series remains the gold standard for diplomatic history scholarship. Read the full article »

On December 23, 2008, the U.S. Department of Education announced the opening of the fiscal year 2009 Teaching American History (TAH) grants competition. The deadline for “Notice of Intent to Apply” is January 22, 2009. The deadline for the transmittal of applications is March 9, 2009, and the deadline for intergovernmental review is May 7, 2009. Potential applicants are strongly advised to read the full notice in the Federal Register by clicking here or visiting the TAH Web site. Read the full article »

In December 2008, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced that 248 successful applicants would receive $15.7 million in awards and offers for a wide-range of projects in the humanities. Read the full article »

The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) and the National Park Service (NPS), recently jointly announced the awarding of $10.52 million in federal competitive Save America’s Treasures (SAT) grants to 40 organizations and agencies. The grants are made in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Read the full article »

During this holiday giving season, the NCH Board of Directors urge you to make an end-of-the-year fully TAX DEDUCTIBLE contribution to the NATIONAL COALITION FOR HISTORY (federal tax ID #01-0688590 for federal income tax purposes). Your contribution will help ensure the continuation of our important education and advocacy activities that advance the interests of the historical and archival communities here in Washington. Read the full article »

On December 19, 2008, the major archival groups, the National Coalition for History (NCH) and several individual NCH member organizations sent a letter to President-elect Obama’s Transition Team setting forth the qualifications that should be considered in selecting a new Archivist of the United States. It was sent the same day that former-Archivist Allen Weinstein’s resignation became effective. Read the full article »

The National Humanities Alliance is pleased to extend an invitation to its 2009 Conference & Humanities Advocacy Day to be held March 10-11 in Washington, DC. A new Administration and Congress will be sworn in early next year, marking a historic moment that includes a shift in party control of the executive branch for the first time in eight years. Read the full article »

On December 7, historian Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, submitted his resignation to the President, effective December 19, 2008. Professor Weinstein, who has Parkinson’s disease, cited health reasons for his decision. Deputy Archivist of the United States, Adrienne Thomas, will serve as Acting Archivist until a new Archivist is appointed. It is anticipated that Bush administration will not try to seek to name a successor and that President-elect Obama will nominate the new Archivist sometime after he takes office in January. Read the full article »

In a tense and adversarial meeting at the State Department this week, Professor Wm. Roger Louis the chairman of the Department’s Historical Advisory Committee warned that the future of the Department’s “Foreign Relations of the United States” (FRUS) series, which is the official record of U.S. foreign policy, is in jeopardy due to mismanagement by the Office of the Historian. Underscoring his concerns, Dr. Louis announced his resignation from the Committee. (coverage provided courtesy of Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News). Read the full article »

On December 5, 2008, President-elect Obama’s transition team chief John Podesta issued a memorandum to its staff instituting what is called a “Seat at the Table” transparency policy. The memo states that “any documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be posted on our website for people to review and comment on.” Read the full article »

This week, the Majority and Minority leadership of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was announced. Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY) was selected by the House Democratic Caucus to chair the Committee. In addition, the House Republican Conference voted to confirm Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) as the Ranking Minority Member. Read the full article »

In early December Footnote.com and the National Archives and Records Administration unveiled the release of the first-ever interactive World War II collection, which includes an interactive version of the USS Arizona Memorial, WWII Hero Pages and WWII photos and documents previously unavailable on the internet. Read the full article »

On December 4, 2008, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library released recordings and transcripts of President Johnson’s telephone conversations for May 1968 through January 1969. With this final release, the archivists at the Library will have reviewed and released to the public approximately 642 hours of recordings of President Johnson’s telephone conversations. Read the full article »

The Office of History and Preservation in the Office of the Clerk of U.S. House of Representatives recently published, “Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007.” A website was launched along with the new publication that includes lesson plans and other educational resources. Read the full article »

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Council of Independent Colleges, with the UNCF, will cosponsor a seminar on Slave Narratives to be held at Yale University on June 7-10, 2009. The deadline for completed nominations is January 12, 2009. Guidelines and the nomination form are available on CIC’s website by clicking here. Read the full article »

On December 11, in a letter to Walmart President and CEO Lee Scott, 253 historians from throughout the country urged the retail giant to reconsider plans to build a 138,000 square-foot supercenter immediately adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange County, VA. A formal application for the project was filed on December 5, 2008. Read the full article »

On December 3, 2008, historians Peter Robert Lamont Brown and Romila Thapar were named recipients of the $1 Million 2008 Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity. They are the sixth and seventh recipients since the Prize’s 2003 inception. Each awardee will receive half of the $1 million prize. The Kluge Prize is international; the recipient may be of any nationality, writing in any language. The main criterion for a recipient is deep and sustained intellectual accomplishment in the study of humanity that has an impact beyond narrow academic disciplines. Read the full article »