Planning of a new permanent exhibition for Carpenter’s Hall, the site at which the First Continental Congress met.

In advance of the Carpenters’ Company of Philadelphia’s 300th anniversary and the 250th anniversary of the First Continental Congress, both of which will occur in 2024, the Company is planning a new core exhibition in its headquarters, Carpenters’ Hall. This project seeks to update the interpretation of the events that occured in the Hall by prioritizing an inclusive social history that draws on recent scholarship and appeals to a broad audience. This grant will help the Company refine the themes and content of the new exhibition through testing and consultation; determine the best use of the physical space; and develop interactive and immersive strategies for interpretation.

Development of an exhibition and interpretive center focused on the role of Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church and the African American experience in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, as well as the impact of the Clinton Church on W.E.B. Du Bois.

Clinton Church Restoration (CCR) is requesting a Public Humanities Projects Planning Grant in the Historic Places category to design interpretive exhibits for an African American heritage site and cultural center. The project is part of CCR’s initiative to preserve, restore, and adaptively reuse the historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church in Great Barrington, a town in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts that was the hometown of civil rights pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois.

Development of a master interpretive plan for exhibitions, site interpretation, and public programs for the Granada Relocation Center National Historic Landmark, known as Amache, and the Amache Museum.

This Historic Places project requests Planning grant funding from the National Endowment of the Humanities in the amount of $40,000 in order to revise and update the Amache Interpretation Master Plan. An updated interpretive plan will more fully integrate the needs, perspectives, and voices of a stakeholder community that has substantially grown in the last decade and consider the new and continued ways in which this community interacts with the site. New advancements in technology and the opportunities they present now and for the future will also be updated. In addition, the interpretive themes that provided the thematic structure of the 2007 Plan need to be contextualized in today’s reality, reframed to address the relevancy, urgency, and necessity of sharing the lessons that Japanese incarceration can offer to the social and political climate of today.

Planning a permanent exhibition for the Museo del Westside and tours of the eleven-building complex comprising the Mexican-American historic district on San Antonio’s Westside.

The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center seeks $75,000 in Historic Places funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support planning Historias del Westside, the inaugural exhibition and walking tour at the Museo del Westside. This exhibition will interpret and serve as the formal launch of the Rinconcito de Esperanza, an eleven-building historic complex on San Antonio’s Westside. Housed in the historic Ruben’s Ice House building, the Museo del Westside will be the first museum to focus on the rich Mexican-American history of the Westside neighborhood.

Planning for the reinterpretation of an 1850s U.S. Army fort in south-central Colorado.

History Colorado seeks funding for a Historic Places Planning Grant to fund a revised interpretive plan for the Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center, located in the San Luis Valley of south-central Colorado. The interpretation will navigate the rich history of the region and explore the humanities themes of 1) environment has a cultural impact, 2) borderlands define and impact political and social history, 3) cultures influence the traditions of the region and have created layers of identity, and 4) engagement, activism, and community memory help to define the resilience of the borderlands.

Creation of a site-wide cultural interpretive plan for Raleigh’s Dorothea Dix Park.

Dorothea Dix Park Conservancy in Raleigh, N.C., seeks an NEH Historical Places planning grant to create a site-wide cultural interpretive plan to bring new meaning and reconciliation through humanities activities to those experiencing the park with its complex past. Dix Park, the former 308-acre Dorothea Dix Hospital campus for the mentally ill, was purchased in July 2015 by the City of Raleigh from the State of N.C. with the intent of creating a great urban destination park within view of the downtown core. Dix Park has a sensitive, layered history on this piece of land, and we are intentionally learning, acknowledging, and working to apply its history to our present and future. In collaboration with our scholar advisors and community resources, we will explore how the themes of human mental illness and human struggle and perseverance support a foundation for understanding the uses of the land, existing buildings, and local history that reflects broader themes in U.S. history.

Development of an exhibition examining slavery in New England and an interpretive plan integrating that story into tours of the Jeremiah Lee Mansion.

The Marblehead Museum seeks to develop an interpretative and exhibit plan for the 1768 Jeremiah Lee Mansion House and Brick Kitchen & Slave Quarters that incorporates both structures and the surrounding landscape into a cohesive whole to provide visitors of all ages with a rich, multi-faceted picture of the enslaved communities of coastal New England while highlighting individual stories that reflect enslaved people’s persistent quest to forge and maintain their humanity via resistance, control, and various forms of agency. Through exhibits, recreated spaces, and guided interpretation, the project will allow the Museum to tell an often overlooked, misunderstood, and misrepresented regional history with national implications for understanding how the history of slavery in the northeast continues to impact our communities today.

Development of an inclusive interpretive plan for the Historic Huguenot Street historic site.

Historic Huguenot Street, a nationally landmarked 10-acre site located in New York’s Hudson River Valley, requests funding through a Historic Places Planning Grant to facilitate the development of a new interpretive plan. In collaboration with scholarly advisors and community partners, Historic Huguenot Street will explore the interrelated themes of 1) Interculturality: Examining how navigating historical narratives between distinct cultures reveal challenges, patterns of behavior, and varied outcomes with relevance to visitors today; 2) Historical Contingency: the dynamic political landscape of early colonial New York challenges the idea that the outcomes of historical struggles are predetermined; and 3) Cultural Landscapes: Emphasizing the reciprocal relationship between people and the natural environment yields insight into how identities influence the use and experience of land.