Publishing Historical Records in Documentary Editions | EDITIONS 202010

Opportunity Information: Apply for EDITIONS 202010

Publishing Historical Records in Documentary Editions is a grant program from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), part of the National Archives and Records Administration, that supports projects creating high-quality documentary editions of historically significant U.S. records. The program is meant to improve public access to primary sources by funding the work required to collect, organize, transcribe, annotate, edit, and publish historical documents with the scholarly context readers need to understand them. Projects can be organized around major people in American history (a biographical edition) or around broader themes and movements, including law (and the social and cultural history of law), politics, reform movements, business, the military, the arts, and other dimensions of the national experience. A core expectation is that the historical value of the materials and their usefulness to broad audiences must clearly justify the cost of the editorial work.

A major emphasis in this opportunity is commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. NHPRC explicitly encourages proposals that use documentary collections to explore the founding ideals of the United States and how those ideals have been interpreted, contested, and debated across the last 250 years. The Commission also signals strong interest in projects that connect scholarship with public engagement by expanding civic education and helping audiences better understand U.S. history, democracy, and culture from the founding era to the present.

Digital publication is central to the program, especially for new applicants. Any new project (defined as one that has never received NHPRC funding) must come in with definitive plans to publish and preserve a digital edition that provides online access to a searchable, fully transcribed, and annotated corpus of documents. Print publication can be included as part of a broader plan (including ebooks or searchable PDFs posted online), but any material published in print is expected to also appear in a fully searchable digital edition within a reasonable timeframe. NHPRC encourages free public access to online editions, and proposals that do not already have clear, workable plans for digital dissemination and digital preservation at the time of application are not considered.

The grants are designed for collaborative, professionally staffed editorial teams rather than solo efforts. Projects are expected to include at least two scholar-editors and to involve additional roles as needed, such as archivists, digital scholarship specialists, data curators, and technical support staff. Funded activities can include describing and preserving the source materials, compiling and organizing documentary selections, transcription, annotation, editorial work, encoding, and publication online and in print. The program generally prioritizes original documentary sources like manuscripts and typed documents, but it can also support editions incorporating additional formats, including analog audio and born-digital records, when appropriate to the edition.

There are clear limits on what the program will not fund. Because the focus is on historical documentary records, it generally does not support critical editions of works that are already published, unless those published works represent only a small portion of a larger documentary project. The program also does not support the production of film or video documentaries. Applications made up entirely of ineligible activities will not move forward for review.

For projects that are already underway and seeking continued NHPRC support, the Commission expects applicants to show credible progress and strong project management. Ongoing projects must document that they met the performance goals tied to previous NHPRC awards, provide updated information about the next phase of work, identify the specific materials to be edited during the proposed year and explain their historical significance, demonstrate momentum toward completing the edition, and justify costs through a revised budget.

Funding is provided as a one-year grant with an award ceiling of up to $175,000 per year. NHPRC anticipated making up to 25 awards in this category, with a projected total program amount of up to $3,000,000. For the cycle described, grants were expected to begin no earlier than January 1, 2021, and applications had an original closing date of October 8, 2020. Grantees must acknowledge NHPRC support in publications, publicity, and any other products that result from the funded work.

Eligibility is limited to U.S.-based organizations, including nonprofit organizations and institutions, colleges and universities (public or private), state and local government agencies, and federally acknowledged or state-recognized Native American tribes or groups. The program requires cost sharing: NHPRC will cover no more than 50 percent of the total project costs for documentary editions, meaning the applicant must supply the remaining share through a combination of allowable direct expenses, indirect costs counted as match, in-kind contributions, non-federal third-party support, and project-generated income. A notable restriction is that NHPRC funds cannot be used for indirect costs; indirect costs may only be counted toward the applicant’s cost share, consistent with the cited federal regulation.

Finally, applicants must meet standard federal registration requirements before applying. The applicant organization must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), keep that registration active through the application and award period, and include a valid DUNS number in the application (per the opportunity’s stated requirements and guidance). Ineligible applications are not reviewed, so proposals need to align closely with the program’s documentary-editing mission, digital access requirements, and funding limitations.

• The National Archives and Records Administration in the humanities (see cultural affairs in cfda) sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Publishing Historical Records in Documentary Editions" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 89.003.
• This funding opportunity was created on Dec 09, 2019.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 08, 2020. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $175,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 25 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for EDITIONS 202010

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