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Helping people protect, enhance, and enjoy the places that matter to them.
About Us
| | Supported by |
The African American Historic Places Initiative is supported in part by
Ford Foundation
1772 Foundation | | The African American Historic Places Update highlights the efforts of the National Trust for Historic Preservation to help preservation leaders preserve, enhance, and enjoy African American historic places (AAHP). Please share this information with your colleagues and friends. To discuss issues, share your ideas, announce events, and find opportunities, please join other preservation leaders on the AAHP list-serv by contacting Brent_Leggs@nthp.org. | Northeast Office Welcomes 1772 Fellows
The Northeast Regional Office is pleased to announce that Ervin James of Cincinnati, Ohio and Trevor Johnson of Boston, Massachusetts have been selected for the prestigious 1772 Fellowship beginning May 26, 2009. Both will work in the Northeast Office in Boston to develop a regional database and survey of African American preservation organizations and historic sites, from Maine to Delaware. This effort is to first identify those working to preserve African American historic places, to assess the health of these organizations, and to build relationships with each site to advise them on various resources available at NTHP. This valuable work, particularly the survey, will influence and guide future programming that the Northeast Office is developing to support these organizations. Their primary duties will include adding and mapping African American historic places on PreservationNation.org so it is available to the public and preservationists. This 10-week position is funded by the 1772 Foundation.
Ervin James is currently completing his doctorate in history at Texas A & M University and previously attended Texas Southern University and Tuskegee University. His experience working in historic preservation and in public history includes such respected organizations as the Texas Historical Commission, National Center for Preservation Training and Technology, and Boston African American National Historic Site, and includes presentations at the National African American Alliance Conference and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Ervin will also work as the NTHP's African American Historic Places Coordinator beginning September 2009 in Washington, D.C.
Trevor Johnson is currently working on his master's thesis in historical archaeology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and previously attended Bard College. His preservation background includes research on a free Black community in Hyde Park, New York from 1790-1850. His working experience includes noted organizations like Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Fiske Center for Archaeological Research, and Hudson River Heritage.
To provide information about African American preservation organizations and extant African American historic sites in the Northeast, please send an email to Ervin_James@nthp.org and Trevor_Johnson@nthp.org.
| Grants for Partnership Projects
Thanks to funding from the Ford Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation will be launching Partnership-in-
Scholarship Grants to support collaborative projects between African American Historic Places and college/university scholars.
This year, four grants of $15,000 each will be awarded to projects that help sustain current or attract new audiences at historic sites through cultural programs or enhance the interpretation of challenging topics at historic sites. Projects should: - improve public access to African American historical and cultural resources at historic places, or
- strengthen teaching and education at colleges and universities through historic places, or
- promote research and original scholarship of a significant theme related to African American history and culture to support joint public programs, or
- provide opportunities for lifelong learning through a collaborative program, or
- strengthen each institution's humanities programming in order to preserve, enhance, or enjoy significant African American historic places.
More details, including examples of eligible projects and partners, are available in the Guidelines for the Partnership-in-Scholarship Grants. Not sure if your project is eligible or competitive? Contact the NTHP Regional Office near you or Grant Manager Max A. van Balgooy. Deadline for applications is September 30, 2009; applications will be available in July. | | Diversity Scholarships Available
The National Trust seeks culturally diverse applicants whose attendance at the National Preservation Conference (in Nashville October 13-17, 2009) will benefit their communities and whose commitment to historic preservation will be reinforced by their participation. The Diversity Scholarship Program, funded by a generous grant from the National Park Service, provides financial assistance to approximately 60 community leaders from diverse social, economic, racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Applications are available online and due June 15, 2009. Learn more.
| Projects at National Trust Historic Sites
 National Trust Historic Sites offer a diversity of programs and projects that provide models for sites across the nation. Coming up in the next year are several projects supported by the National Trust's Interpretation and Education Fund that may interest you:
- $10,000 to Woodlawn for researching and developing interpretive resources for the mid-19th century history of Woodlawn, when the Quakers used it to demonstrate that southern plantations could be successful when supported by free rather than enslaved black labor.
- $9,000 to Cliveden to assemble a panel of nationally-recognized scholars and specialists to develop a plan to interpret the Site's African American history through the Chew family papers.
- $9,000 to James Madison's Montpelier to expand the interpretation of African American history through the life of Paul Jennings, including travel to conduct research, equipment to record oral histories, and a Jennings family reunion.
For more information, contact these sites or read about the Interpretation and Education Fund.
| Know a Place That Matters?
 If you do, visit This Place Matters to download a sign, take a picture or make a video at the place that matters to you, and post it to our slide show. Don't have a picture? Plant your flag on our This Place Matters Google Map. And then be sure to tell your friends, members, and supporters you're part of a national movement and to look for you!
| | | Coming up in future issues
- Online database of African American historic places
- Activities and events at the National Preservation Conference in Nashville
| | The National Trust for Historic Preservation helps people protect, enhance, and enjoy the places that matter to them. Support our efforts by becoming a member (it's only $20 a year!) or if you're a preservation leader, you'll find Forum membership to be an ideal resource. Sincerely, |
Max A. van Balgooy
Director, African American Historic Places Initiative &
National Trust for Historic Preservation | | |
This email was sent to eelaj@aol.com by max_vanbalgooy@nthp.org.
National Trust for Historic Preservation | 1785 Massachusetts Ave., NW | Washington | DC | 20036
