Planning for enhanced educator access to digitized collections

FAIN: PG-271746-20

Noah Webster House (West Hartford, CT 06107-3453)
Sheila Daley (Project Director: January 2020 to June 2024)

The creation of a digitization plan for materials in the applicants’ collections, to enhance access for educators and students to support national, state, and local history, geography, and civics education related to the themes of the NEH initiative, “A More Perfect Union.” Proposed activities include holding focus groups with local teachers and curriculum specialists, evaluation of appropriateness for primary source kits or lesson plans, prioritization of materials for digitization, and digital reformatting of select test-bed materials for creation of teacher resources. Holdings available from the Noah Webster Collection comprise more than 200 original editions of Webster’s books and 25 original documents, including legal records, correspondence, and ephemera, dated 1778-1845. Object collections include approximately 400 items of town residents’ memorabilia and approximately 600 pieces of clothing and accessories, as well as pottery, archaeological artifacts, and such items as a slave’s headstone. Additionally, the historical society’s Butler Family Collection comprises six linear feet of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century correspondence, legal documents, land deeds, financial records, estate inventories for Revolutionary War soldiers, receipts, and ephemera.

The Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society is located in the birthplace and childhood home of Noah Webster, a nationally registered historic landmark. The museum offers award-winning programming to thousands of students and visitors each year, and holds manuscript and 3d object collections related to Noah Webster and to the local community spanning the 17th through the 21st century. We request funds for planning and pilot activities related to the NEH special initiative, "A More Perfect Union." We are seeking to consult with an historian and an archivist to undertake digitization planning and pilot work informed by input from local teachers and curriculum specialists, to support use of collections for primary source classroom instruction and in commemorative activities for the 2026 Anniversary of American independence.