She’s a Budapest-born American. He’s a Brooklyn-born Brit. Together they are helping to digitize some of the most important documents of American history.

The New York Public Library will announce a $500,000 donation from the Polonsky Foundation, the family foundation of Georgette F. Bennett and Leonard S. Polonsky.

Funding projects that help make historical documents accessible to more people comes from a “fervent belief in the democratization of knowledge,” said Dr. Bennett.