National Coalition for History

On June 28, 2010, Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), the longest-serving Member of Congress, passed away. Senator Byrd was 92 years old. Senator Byrd was considered the “father” of the Teaching American History Grants program at the U.S. Department of Education. Since its inception in fiscal year 2001, nearly $1 billion in federal dollars have been spent to raise student achievement by improving teachers’ knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of American history. Read the full article »

On June 7, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and the National Archives held a hearing to consider ways to strengthen the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Subcommittee Chairman Wm. Lacy Clay has introduced legislation (H.R. 1556) to reauthorize the NHPRC at a $20 million level through fiscal year 2014. Read the full article »

On June 17, 2010, the Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing to review the status of the management of electronic records at federal agencies, and explored ways to improve the scheduling and preservation of electronic records. Read the full article »

On June 21, the William J. Clinton Presidential Library opened a final batch of 1,750 pages of files relating to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s tenure at the White House Domestic Policy Council and the White House Counsel’s Office. The Clinton Library has released approximately 170,000 pages since the initial request for Kagan’s records was made in a May 18, 2010, letter from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) to Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero. Read the full article »

On June 21, the Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress (ACRC) met at the U.S Capitol Visitors Center. The Advisory Committee is comprised of the officials in Congress responsible for its records (Clerk of the House, Secretary of the Senate, Senate Historian, and House Historian) and the Archivist of the United States, who is responsible for the administration of the archived records of Congress. Read the full article »

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced $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. Read the full article »

National Park Service (NPS) Director Jonathan Jarvis recently named Stephanie Smith Toothman, Ph.D., as the Service’s new Associate Director for Cultural Resources. Toothman will be responsible for history, historic preservation, and cultural programs in 392 national parks and a host of community programs that make-up the NPS role in a national preservation partnership among federal, Tribal, state and local governments and nonprofits. She will begin her job in mid July. Read the full article »

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero recently announced the retirement of Martha Morphy, Assistant Archivist for Information Services and the agency’s Chief Information Officer (CIO), effective July 2, 2010. Charles Piercy, Deputy CIO, will be Acting Assistant Archivist for Information Services and Acting CIO, until a permanent replacement is named. Read the full article »

Claudine K. Brown has been named director of education for the Smithsonian Institution, effective June 20. Brown, 60, has been the director of the arts and culture program at the Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York since 1995. Read the full article »

Historian William Roger Louis will survey the differences and similarities in European colonial empires from the 19th century to the post-World-War-II era, in a lecture July 12 at the Library of Congress. Read the full article »

On July 1, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and the National Archives will be holding a business meeting to mark up legislation (H.R. 5616) to reauthorize the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) at a $20 million level from fiscal year 2011 to fiscal year 2015. Since FY 1991, the NHPRC’s authorization level has never exceeded $10 million. Read the full article »

The National Archives recently released for public comment a draft prioritization plan for the National Declassification Center (NDC) . The plan focuses on moving the approximately 408 million pages of accessioned Federal records to the open stacks and clearing referrals in the Presidential Libraries Remote Archives Capture (RAC) program. A copy of the draft plan may be found by clicking here. Read the full article »

On June 4, the William Clinton Presidential Library opened approximately 46,500 pages of files relating to U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan’s tenure at the White House Domestic Policy Council. The additional release of papers from the approximately 160,000 pages of material will be made available on the Clinton Library website in batches as soon as the records are processed. Read the full article »

On Wednesday, June 9, 2009, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee will hold a hearing entitled, “Strengthening the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.” The hearing will take place at 2:00 p.m. in room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building. Witnesses from a number of the National Coalition for History’s historical and archival membership organizations are scheduled to testify. Read the full article »

At its spring meeting, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) awarded 88 grants of $7,038,063 for projects in 36 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. A list of the grantees by category is available by clicking here. Read the full article »

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero recently announced the appointment of Sheryl Jasielum Shenberger as the first director of the National Archives National Declassification Center (NDC). Her appointment is effective June 7, 2010. Read the full article »

The National Park Service (NPS) recently awarded 23 grants totaling $2.9 million to help preserve and interpret historic locations, where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. To see a list of the 2010 grantees click here. Read the full article »

On May 20, Jonathan Spence, one of the world’s leading experts on Chinese history and culture, delivered the 2010 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. The annual lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. To read the lecture, click here. Read the full article »

The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) recently unveiled its annual report on the status of the nation’s historic battlegrounds. The report, entitled History Under Siege: A Guide to America’s Most Endangered Civil War Battlefields, identifies the most threatened Civil War sites in the United States and what can be done to save them. Read the full article »

President Barack Obama recently named Milford Wayne Donaldson, FAIA, to be the next chairman of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP). Read the full article »