National Coalition for History

Strategies to strengthen the work of the National Park Service as it prepares for its centennial in 2016 are included in a report released today by the National Park System Advisory Board (NPSAB). The report, Engaging Independent Perspectives for a 21st-Century National Park System, summarizes the board’s recommendations to National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis for the future in four areas: stewardship, education, relevancy and the National Park Service workforce. Read the full article »

Effective Friday, March 15, 2013, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will reduce public hours at two locations in the Washington, DC, area as part of actions it is taking due to sequestration. These reductions will affect exhibit spaces and research rooms at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and research rooms at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. Read the full article »

On December 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the CIA’s attempt to shortcut the National Security Archive’s lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the last still-secret history of the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. In August, the National Coalition for History (NCH) joined twelve other history and archival organizations, in requesting the Federal court to review the lower court’s decision. Read the full article »

On December 6, the Public Interest Declassification Board submitted its recommendations to the President on Transforming the Security Classification System. The Board created the report in response to the President’s request in Executive Order 13526, for assistance in identifying potential solutions for classification and declassification challenges in the digital age and producing a vision for a new system. Read the full article »

On November 6, voters retained the current balance of power in Washington. Republicans retained control of the House (234-201), albeit with the loss of a handful of seats, and of course President Obama was re-elected. Democrats retained control of the Senate and saw their margin increased by two seats, to 55-45. Read the full article »

On November 9, U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake sentenced Jason Savedoff to twelve months and one day in prison, plus two years’ probation, for conspiracy and theft of historical documents from cultural institutions in four states, including the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York. Read the full article »

Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero has approved 46 proposals totaling $2,605,494 in Federal awards for projects in 35 states and the District of Columbia. This grants program is carried out through the National Archives National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). A complete list of the approved grants is available online. Read the full article »

The National Archives and Records Administration and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library have released an additional seven boxes of material (more than 2,700 pages) from the Robert F. Kennedy Papers, housed at the Kennedy Library in Boston, including documents relating primarily to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Read the full article »

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is accepting applications for its Museums for America (MFA) and National Leadership Grants for Museums (NLG-M) programs. The two grant programs together are the largest source of federal funding specifically for museums in the United States. The application deadline is January 15, 2013. Read the full article »

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) recently announced $17.5 million in grants for 246 humanities projects that span academic disciplines. This award cycle, institutions and independent scholars in 41 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will receive NEH support. Complete state-by-state listings of grants are available here (52-page PDF). Read the full article »

The National Archives’ National Declassification Center (NDC) recently released more than 1000 new pages of material not previously available to the public on the Katyn Forest Massacre of Polish Army officers in the Soviet Union during World War II. A link to the web page describing this release and the history surrounding the incident is posted at: http://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/katyn-massacre/ Read the full article »

The National Archives and Records Administration recently released records that have been sealed under court order since the 1970s Watergate criminal trial of seven men involved in the Watergate burglary, U.S. v. Liddy, et al. The release includes 36 folders of documents totaling approximately 950 pages in accordance with a court order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Read the full article »

Archivist of the United State David S. Ferriero recently announced the appointment of William J. Bosanko (“Jay”) as Chief Operating Officer for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), effective January 1, 2013. Ferriero also named Pamela Wright as NARA’s first Chief Innovation Officer, effective December 2, 2012. Read the full article »

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the Department of Commerce (DOC), have partnered to develop an online system aimed at expanding public access to information requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Read the full article »

For the first time, the public has free online access to historic Navy, Coast Guard and Revenue Cutter ship logs between the pre-Civil War period through World War II under a digitization project announced by the National Archives and Records Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Read the full article »

The National Archives’ Office of the Federal Register (OFR) and the Government Printing Office (GPO) have released a Presidential Documents free mobile Web application (app) [http://m.gpo.gov/dcpd] on the President’s daily public activities. Read the full article »

National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis recently announced the award of more than $2.4 million in grants to help with land acquisition at eight Civil War battlefields. Read the full article »

The U.S. Department of Education recently announced the award of the Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) grants, totaling more than $3.2 million, to 34 institutions of higher education. At these institutions, 84 individual fellowships were awarded to doctoral students to conduct research in other countries, in modern foreign languages and area studies, for periods of six to 12 months. Read the full article »

This week, the Library of Congress, in collaboration with the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives and the Government Printing Office (GPO), unveiled Congress.gov, a new public beta site for accessing free, fact-based legislative information. Congress.gov, at beta.congress.gov, eventually will replace the public THOMAS system and the congressional Legislative Information System (LIS). Read the full article »

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has issued an amended fee schedule for reproduction of archival materials in National Archives facilities nationwide. The new fee schedule starts October 1, 2012, and is accessible by clicking here. Read the full article »