NHPRC awards $160,700 grant to VCU Libraries for community outreach

By Kimberly Separ
VCU Libraries

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission has awarded Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries a $160,700 grant to expand its Archives of the New Dominion community outreach initiative.

Under the terms of the grant, the VCU Libraries will work with African-American, Hispanic-American, gay and lesbian, and women's activist communities in Richmond and Central Virginia to record and preserve the work of their organizations. The funding was among NHPRC's largest 2004 grants, and is the largest amount ever given to a Virginia institution for a records-access project.

As part of the Archives of the New Dominion, this grant initiative will fill a critical gap in historical resources available to future students and scholars. With a few exceptions, historians studying the minority and activist communities of 20th century Central Virginia must rely largely on secondary sources and demographic data. This project will ensure researchers a wide scope of resources and evidence for their studies.

While this effort will be important to future scholars, it also will benefit both the local community and the state. The project's long-range goal is to allow future generations of these communities access to their histories. By initiating this effort now, the persons and organizations that have played a key role in the 20th century Richmond urban and Central Virginia experience will be able to document and preserve their history directly.

This project forms part of the VCU Libraries' Archives of the New Dominion initiative, which brings together records that current and future scholars will use in their research of 20th and 21st century Richmond and Central Virginia. The materials in the collection focus on, but are not limited to, the social and cultural history of the metropolitan region and are part of the Special Collections and Archives Department of the James Branch Cabell Library. Among the issues and movements that are already represented in the collection are Civil Rights, Women's Suffrage, suburbanization, attempts to revitalize the downtown area, and the development of the Richmond Symphony. More information on the Special Collections and Archives department, including lists of collections and exhibits can be found online at www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/speccoll.html.

The NHPRC is the grant-funding arm of the National Archives and Records Administration. It awards grants annually to libraries and museums and promotes the preservation of essential historical documents nationwide. For more information on the NHPRC visit www.archives.gov/grants/index.html.