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NEH & Missouri

Between 2006 and 2010, institutions and individuals in Missouri received $13.1 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Missouri Humanities Center for projects that explore the human endeavor and preserve our cultural heritage. Below are some examples.

  • About 100,000 pages of historic Missouri newspapers such as the St. Joseph Observer and the University Missourian from 1880 to 1922 are being digitized by the State Historical Society of Missouri, Columbia, with support from a grant of more than $395,000. This work is part of the National Digital Newspaper Project, an NEH collaboration with the Library of Congress.
  • Perhaps the most genuinely American musical genre, jazz offers rich material to teachers of core humanities subjects such as English, history, art history, and film. Teaching Jazz as American Culture, a summer institute and a subsequent workshop at Washington University, St. Louis, was supported by two grants totaling $300,000 to assist teachers in understanding the impact of jazz both domestically and abroad.
  • The Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, was awarded nearly $40,000 for a 6,000-square-foot exhibition, “The American Revolution on the Frontier.” The exhibition highlights the western theater of the war for independence.
  • The University of Missouri, Kansas City, was awarded $150,000 in 2007 for a teacher workshop, The Missouri–Kansas Border Wars: Contested Visions of Freedoms.
  • Drury University, Springfield, was awarded a grant of $160,000 to organize teacher workshops on the topic Wilson’s Creek: Understanding the Civil War’s Second Major Battle, which will be presented on the significant, if overlooked, site where the fighting occurred.
  • Washington University was awarded nearly $120,000 in 2010 for development of Varieties of American Feminism, 1830s to 1930s, a school teacher seminar that examines the works of American women writers such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, and Anna Julia Cooper.
  • The Cave Archaeology Investigation and Research Network received a grant of $1,950 from the Missouri Humanities Council to document prehistoric footprints, rock art, and bear tracks in a cave north of Springfield.
  • The Frenchtown Heritage Museum, St. Charles, received $4,600 to preserve its photographic collection, which comprises 3,000 images dating from the mid-1800s.
  • Missouri was the quintessential border state in the Civil War, with dueling governments and soldiers fighting for the Union and Confederate armies. The Friends of the Missouri State Archives received a grant of $1,700 from the Missouri Humanities Council to add to a State Archives Civil War exhibit of historic documents telling the story of Missouri’s Divided Loyalties.
  • The Missouri Humanities Council awarded $2,000 to the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau for fostering the art of storytelling. “Cape Girardeau Ghost Stories: Where the River Turns a Thousand Chilling Tales” was the third annual event, which is geared especially for students.