American Historical Association Awards $2.5 Million in Funding

 The American Historical Association (AHA) has awarded $2.5 million to small history-related organizations nationwide, part of a grants program to deliver relief to institutions adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fifty organizations will receive grants ranging from $12,000 to $75,000 each through the AHA’s Grants to Sustain and Advance the Work of Historical Organizations Program, a funding opportunity made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021.

“NEH is grateful to the American Historical Association for administering American Rescue Plan funding to help history organizations around the country recover from the pandemic,” said NEH chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo). “Small museums, historical societies, college history departments, historic sites, and community archives are essential to keeping and telling America’s story. These ARP awards will allow these institutions to develop new programs and resources that will expand access to this important history.”

The grant recipients will implement short-term projects that explore new ideas or build on experiments initiated during the pandemic—from online programming or publications to using new technologies or expanding audiences and accessibility.

“The past two years have been challenging for small history organizations,” said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. “Our awardees have made compelling cases for their status as essential resources, making vital contributions to public culture. The AHA is grateful to the NEH for enabling us to provide funding to our colleagues to promote historical work, historical thinking, and the presence of history in public life.”

The grant recipients include site-based organizations, membership associations, and history departments at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. From the American LGBTQ+ Museum in New York to the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City to the Society for History Education in California, the recipients come from all over the United States and will pursue a broad spectrum of projects. For the full list of recipients and descriptions of their projects, please visit the AHA website.

During the project period, the AHA will host online workshops to cultivate community and mutual consultation among grantees. These events will provide opportunities for professional and organizational development and networking. The AHA’s goal is to encourage long-term connections that both identify and respond to the new needs of entities that are essential to the work of historians but are too small to take significant risks, or lack the resources to implement the creativity of their staff and volunteers.

The AHA looks forward to working with our grant recipients and to the positive impact their projects will have on their staff, members, and audiences around the country.