The National Endowment for the Humanities abruptly canceled virtually all of its existing grants in April, citing a desire to pivot to “the president’s agenda.” Now it has announced its first round of grants since, $34.8 million in funding for 97 projects across the country that helps show what that means.
The grants include many focused on presidents, statesmen and canonical authors, including $10 million to the University of Virginia — which the agency said was the largest grant in its history — that will support the “expedited completion” of editorial work on papers relating to the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution and the Founding era.
That grant will include work on the papers of George Washington and James Madison. Other grants will support work on the papers of other presidents including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore.
The agency said the awards, which build on decades of funding for such projects, were also a response to President Trump’s call for a “grand celebration” of the 250th anniversary of American independence next July.
“These N.E.H. grants will produce new resources and media that will help Americans meaningfully engage with the nation’s founding principles as we approach the U.S. Semiquincentennial,” Michael McDonald, the acting chair of the agency, said in a statement.
Shortly after the grant cancellations in April, the agency also announced that, in keeping with executive orders by Mr. Trump, it would not support projects promoting “extreme ideologies based upon race or gender.”
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