Each year, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) makes funds available to New York State Institutions through its Documentary Heritage Program Grants. These grants assist New York State non-profits (such as libraries, archives, and museums) who are concerned with preserving New York’s unique documentary heritage an opportunity to undertake projects in the areas of (1)documentation or (2) arrangement and description. Many grant recipients start with a documentation project and fund subsequent arrangement and description activity with follow-up grants. For the 2016-17 fiscal year, the state has provided $92,000 for DHP Grants. While DHP is administered by the New York State Archives, a unit of NYSED, there is currently no local, regional provider for DHP advisory services. Even so, CLRC has extensive experience with DHP and is able to provide its members with advice and assistance as they undertake the grant writing process.For assistance, please contact CLRC’s Assistant Director Deirdre Joyce who also serves as CLRC’s consulting archivist.
The postmark deadline for 2016-2017 DHP Grant Applications is Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
In particular, the DHP is interested in funding projects that address the following four topical areas:
- Economic Change: New York’s history over the past centuries has encompassed vast and sometimes turbulent changes in the economic life of the state, such as the decline of heavy industry, innovations in agricultural technology and practice, and the explosion of tourism. Economic change, whether in individual towns and cities, regions, or the state as a whole, is one of the defining themes of New York’s history.
- Military history: New York State’s military forces and the state’s military history have had a major impact on New York since the colonial era. Military records shed light on the lives of soldiers, the struggles of the forces, as well as war’s impact on the home front, and offer researchers a unique view of our past.
- Population groups: New York’s history has been shaped substantially by the arrival, emergence, and growth of a great diversity of groups united in varying degrees by shared culture, ethnic or racial background, socioeconomic status, beliefs or values, and experience. Most groups include both concentrations of individuals in neighborhoods or communities and individuals spread in small clusters throughout the state. Most will also share and nurture particular ways of life or other cultural expressions that help define the group and shape its contributions to New York’s history.
- Social reform and activism: Efforts to achieve or oppose social, economic, cultural, environmental, religious, and political change have been central to New York’s history. Many movements begun in New York, such as those for women’s equality, child labor laws, industrial safety, environmental protection, gay rights, and the Occupy Wall Street, have spread across the nation.
**Important! Because the State of New York requires prequalification for not-for-profits applying for grants, it is crucial for anyone considering applying for a 2016-17 grant to begin the prequalification registration process immediately as this process may take several weeks to complete. For more information on this process, including gaining and maintaining your prequalification status, please visit the Grants Reform website.
Additional details on applying for the grant, including instructions, application materials, and helpful advice for first-time and returning applicants can be found on the NYSA DHP Grants website.