Preserving the story of Jewish America through the Forward's unique photo-journalism collection

FAIN: PG-280824-21

Forward Association, Inc., The (New York, NY 10038-4912)
Chana Pollack (Project Director: January 2021 to June 2024)

A general preservation assessment and purchase of preservation storage supplies for a collection of 70,000 photographs, political cartoons, newspaper clippings, and artifacts of the newspaper printing process spanning the 123-year history of Forward, a Jewish-American newspaper chronicling the Yiddish-speaking world of Eastern European Jewry. Among the collection are photographs of Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meir, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jackie Kennedy, comedienne Fannie Brice, and actress Esther Rachel Kaminska. Additional items include artifacts pertaining to the history of the newspaper, such as notebooks containing board meeting notes from the 1920s to 1980s, business records, Yiddish manuscripts, and letters to the editor. Items from the collections have been used in an exhibition at the Museum at Eldridge documenting the history of Forward, as well as documentary films, online exhibits, and the work of scholars researching the history of Jewish America, New York in the 1900s, and immigrants.

Funding a conservator to conduct a general preservation assessment and purchasing recommended supplies

Media Coverage

National Endowment for the Humanities Announces New Grants (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Sarah Bahr
Publication: The New York Times
Date: 8/17/2021
Abstract: The second round of funding for the year totals $28.4 million and will support 239 projects across the country. "Funding will also support the storage of 117 Chinese opera costumes and 330 traditional Chinese garments called qipaos that were damaged in a January 2020 fire at the Museum of Chinese in America, as well as the preservation of 70,000 photographs, political cartoons and other materials documenting the 123-year history of the Jewish publication The Forward."
URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/arts/national-endowment-for-the-humanities-grants.html