NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 12, #27; 15 JUNE 2006)
2. KEY REPUBLICAN QUESTIONS SMALL’S CONTINUED LEADERSHIP OF SMITHSONIAN
3. ROBERT BYRD NOW LONGEST SERVING SENATOR IN HISTORY
4. NATIONAL HISTORY DAY CONTEST WRAPS UP ANOTHER YEAR
5. ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE RECORDS OF CONGRESS MEETS
6. NEH ANNOUNCES $24.8 MILLION IN AWARDS
7. NHPRC ANNOUNCES THREE NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIES
8. BITS AND BYTES: No postings this week
9. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: “Road Plans Put Stonehenge Status At Risk” (The Guardian) and “Archeologists Try to Save Ancient Sites” (Yahoo News)
1. SOTHEBY’S TO AUCTION KING PAPERS
After years of negotiating with the family of the late Rev. Martin Luther King as well as various institutions, Sotheby’s auction house now has a green light to sell the papers, manuscripts, and personal library of the famed Civil Rights leader. The beneficiaries – the financially-strapped King estate – hope to raise $15 to $30 million for the lot that consists of more than 10,000 individual items. The sale is scheduled to take place on 30 June 2006.
The collection includes nearly all of King’s papers from 1946 to 1968, when he was assassinated, as well as his personal library of 1,000 volumes. Some historians consider it one of the greatest American archives of a major political/social figure in private hands as it reveals the full portrait of King. In 1999 the Library of Congress offered to purchase the collection for $20 million – the largest amount of money ever proposed to be paid for a collection by a public institution – but some members of Congress objected.
Sotheby expects that the collection will be sold to a major institution, perhaps aided by a major donor. The auction house declines to state what institutions have expressed an interest, but the possible candidates include several top universities, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Library of Congress. According to Sotheby’s spokesperson, “If our institutions can’t afford it, then something is intensely wrong.”
2. KEY REPUBLICAN QUESTIONS SMALL’S CONTINUED LEADERSHIP OF SMITHSONIAN In a letter to the director of the Office and Management and Budget, Senate Finance Committee Chair, Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), openly asks the question that many privately have been whispering: “Does the Administration believe Secretary [Lawrence] Small is the appropriate steward of the Smithsonian?”
Grassley cites “Small’s involvement in the extensive fraud” reported by federal regulators, who are currently investigating past practices at Fannie Mae (the Federal National Mortgage Association), an organization that Small headed during the period in question, as his principal cause for concern. Grassley’s letter also notes that the Smithsonian’s own inspector general is also looking into allegations of financial irregularities and excessive executive compensation packages in the Smithsonian Business Ventures Division.
In his letter, Grassley requests that the Smithsonian Board of Directors and not the Secretary (as has been the practice in the past) appoint the new inspector general. In what he characterized as “a fox-guarding-the-hen-house dynamic” Grassley stated, “I am concerned that there is an inherent conflict of interest with Secretary Small nominating the IG who will be responsible for continuing the ongoing investigations regarding his salary and the contracts he entered into on the Smithsonian’s behalf.”
In e-mail communications with the National Coalition for History, SI spokesperson Linda St. Thomas stated that the new IG “will be from outside [the] SI, as both Tom Blair and Deborah Ritt were...Deputy Secretary [Sheila Burke] is working with the Inspector General Association and they are helping to form a search committee for the replacement.”
Furthermore, in response to an e-mail question posted by Washington Post reporter Adriane Quinlan, St. Thomas stated that fears that Small would have total control of the choice of Ritt’s replacement “are unfounded.” The list of final candidates would be interviewed by Small as well as the audit and review committee of the Board of Regents. In addition, candidates for the position will be given the opportunity to meet with the members of the Board of Regents without the presence of the secretary. Nevertheless, Debra S. Ritt, the outgoing IG who resigned just last week, met with Grassley, and according to the Post, she told the senator that her replacement should be hired by the regents, as it “provides greater independence.”
3. ROBERT BYRD NOW LONGEST SERVING SENATOR IN HISTORY On 12 June 2006, the 88 year-old Senator Robert C. Byrd (D-WV) marked his 17,327th day in the Senate thereby becoming the longest-serving senator in American history. Byrd, who has long held the record for the most Senate votes cast as well as for holding more leadership positions than any other senator in history, now also pulls ahead of the late South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond, who, until Monday, held the record as the “longest serving senator.”
How long Byrd will hold the record is a matter of controversy. Both Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Daniel Inouye (D-HI) are younger than Byrd, and both have both served in excess of 43 years in the Senate. However, Joseph Biden (D-DE), whose career in the Senate began only a few weeks shy of his 30th birthday – the minimum age that the Constitution sets for a U.S. senator – could exceed them all, possibly by decades, should he serve as long as Byrd.
The Senate marked the occasion by appropriate tributes to Byrd, a champion for the funding of American history related programs. Senators gushed as the good senator struggled to maintain his composure; ultimately he exited the chamber without speaking.
This year Byrd is seeking his ninth term as senator from West Virginia, and, according to some, he faces his toughest re-election campaign in years – against millionaire GOP businessman John Raese. Raese, who is a relative political novice, has the strong support of the Republican Party, which is expected to pour money raised outside of the state into the campaign against Byrd, an outspoken critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq.
Because of his age (and frankly only because of his age) Byrd is considered vulnerable, but should he be defeated, the state of West Virginia stands to lose literally billions of dollars of federal monies which Byrd, because of his seniority standing in the Senate and position as Ranking Minority Member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, has been and is able to deliver. Raese, by contrast, as a Senator novice, would most likely be assigned a spot as a member of some other, far less influential, committee.
Should Byrd be defeated, history would lose its most vocal and most important spokesman and appropriator for American history programs. For example, the Education Department’s “Teaching American History” initiative, which to date has received over a half-billion dollars, owes its funding directly to Byrd’s commitment and support. Byrd’s future is in the hands of West Virginia voters.
4. NATIONAL HISTORY DAY CONTEST WRAPS UP ANOTHER YEAR National History Day, which in actuality is a year-long nonprofit education program dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of history in our nation’s school system, wrapped up its annual competition at the University of Maryland campus.
Each year, dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries, and research papers based on an annual theme are evaluated at local, state, and national conventions. Kicking off this year’s event that focused on the theme “Taking a Stand: People, Ideas, Events” were speeches by Linda Hunt, author of “Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America” and Fred H. Cate, a NHD alumnus and now professor at the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington. Two days of judging followed with finalists making presentations the next day. The winners were announced during the gala awards ceremony. Students received cash awards as well as gold, silver, and bronze medals, and certificates that recognized individual achievements.
Among the winners announced is the first annual The History Channel Award for Outstanding Contribution in History Education – a $5,000 award sponsored by The History Channel, that is presented an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to history education through service to the National History Day Program. The winner is James Barstow, a social studies teacher at the Science Focus Program in Lincoln. Nebraska.
NHD also has announced a new series of products specifically targeting NHD participants. Included is a manual called “A Guide to Historical Research Through the National History Day Program.” There are also individual guides on such subjects as how to make a historical documentary, how to develop a historical paper, how to create a historical exhibit, and a guide to on how to create a historical performance. Each guide is was written by an expert in the field and is priced under $40 – ordering details may be found at the NHD webpage at http://www.nhd.org/shop .
5. ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE RECORDS OF CONGRESS MEETS The Advisory Committee on the Records of Congress met on 12 June in the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C. The central task before the committee was to conduct a technical review of the fourth Report of the Advisory Committee that is to be issued in December 2006.
Chairperson of the committee Karen L. Hass, Clerk of the House and Vice-Chair Emily J. Reynolds, Secretary of the Senate both made brief introductory remarks highlighting the accomplishments and developments relating to records and record-keeping in their respective
chambers. Among the news items, Reynolds announced that Senate Historian
Richard Baker’s book “200 Notable Days” – a compilation of Baker’s essays on the institution of the Senate – will soon be published. Members strained to hear the words of Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein who addressed the group without aid of a microphone. The archivist briefed the committee on the recent much-publicized federal agency reclassification effort, the anticipated FY 2007 budget for NARA, recent Nazi War Crimes records releases, and the upcoming sale of the King Papers.
Following the committee’s formal review of the draft fourth report to Congress on the activities of the advisory committee, Karen Paul gave a detailed report of the May meeting of the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress. Among other things Paul stated that former Alabama Congressman Glen Browder, who addressed the association on the topic “What I learned About My Own Collection as I Processed It,” suggested the need for an advocacy group comprised of former members of Congress who would talk to present and former House/Senate members and convince them of the need for them to make arrangements to preserve and donate their official records and private papers to appropriate institutions. Paul stated that Browder agreed to head such an advocacy group.
Following NARA’s Center for Legislative Archives’ head Richard Hunt’s short report, the committee heard from IT Staff Director for the House Ways and Means Committee Ted Clark. Clark made a long and detailed presentation of a knowledge (records) management system for the control and preservation of members’ office records and papers. The new system, was developed by Clark and his associates as a pilot program for the office of Senator Jim Talent
(R-MO) and has apparently captured the interest of the Congressional Management Foundation as a potential model records management system for Congressional offices. If adopted by a Congressional office, the system would serve the interests of present office managers as well as historians and political scientists as the system not only preserves records but because of its digital nature, also captures and processes office functions.
6. NEH ANNOUNCES $24.8 MILLION IN AWARDS On 8 June 2006, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced that 171 successful applicants will receive a total of $24.8 million in grants and offers of matching funds for projects designed to advance humanities research and prepare scholarly editions, provide high quality public programming on television and in libraries, support projects in U.S.
history and culture offered by state humanities councils, preserve and stabilize significant humanities collections, and support long-term plans for strengthening humanities programming at cultural institutions. A total of fifty-four of the successful grants are designated as "We the People"
projects, a special recognition by the NEH for model projects that advance the study, teaching, and understanding of American history and culture.
“The humanities convey important stories of our world, and today’s NEH grant recipients are deeply engaged in advancing those stories through scholarly research, increased efforts to preserve our cultural heritage, and new public programs that engage our minds and broaden our understanding of human history,” said NEH Chairman Bruce Cole. “NEH supports projects that are rigorous, wide-ranging, and substantial in their examination and illumination of the great events and great ideas of the past in our own nation and throughout the world.”
In this award cycle, scholars and institutions in 43 states and the District of Columbia received support from the NEH for a wide variety of awards made as NEH Challenge Grants, Federal/State Partnership Awards, Preservation and Access, Public Programs Awards, and Research Awards. A complete state-by-state listing of grants and offers is available in three Adobe PDF files on the NEH website at http://www.humanities.gov .
7. NHPRC ANNOUNCES THREE NEW GRANT OPPORTUNITIES During its May 2006 meeting, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) approved three grant opportunities for the next round of applications. Applications are being accepted against a 2 October
2006 deadline for an “Archives Leadership Institute”; “Digitizing Historical Records” projects; and “Historical Documentary Editing Fellowships.”
For the “Archives Leadership Institute,” the commission seeks proposals from organizations to design and implement an Archives Leadership Institute to provide executive leadership training for archivists and records managers, as well as sharpening skills in nonprofit management and areas of particular concern in archives. The Institute is envisioned as comparable to the Museum Leadership Institute run by the Getty Institute; the Seminar in Historical Administration sponsored by the American Association of State and Local History, the American Association of Museums, Colonial Williamsburg, Indiana Historical Society, the National Park Service, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation; and the Frye Leadership Institute's for Higher Education Professionals; and the NHPRC-sponsored Institute for the Editing of Historical Documents.
The Archival Leadership Institute seeks to bring to tomorrow's leaders the insights and understanding necessary for increasing public use and appreciation of archives. One award, for a period of up to three years beginning in January 2007, will be made, with the expectation that at least two institutes will take place during that period. The total available funds are up to $250,000, and cost sharing may be waived. The commission anticipates that the developer of an effective institute will have an ongoing relationship with the commission in future years. The full announcement is available at:
http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/announcement/leadership.html
For its “Digitizing Historical Records” initiative, the commission seeks proposals to test and implement cost-effective methods to scan historical record collections and make digital versions freely available on the Internet. The key aspect to this pilot program is to demonstrate how entire archival collections can be digitized and uploaded to the Web, thereby making materials more quickly and readily available to the public.
Projects must focus on digitizing archival components that consist of nationally-significant materials. Archival components may be entire collections or series. The selected materials should already be processed so that projects can use existing information to create metadata for the digitized collection. The selected materials should include enough records to test the feasibility and value of disseminating large quantities of historical sources based on standard archival methods of description and arrangement (most likely using existing Encoded Archival Description finding aids). Goals of these projects are to produce entire collections or series useable online as digital images and descriptions of methods and practices that other institutions can use to reproduce the results.
The commission intends to allocate one to three awards of up to a total of $150,000 each. Each project may be up to three years in duration. The commission will provide up to 50 percent of the total project costs, which grantees must match through cost sharing. The full announcement is available at: http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/announcement/digitizing.html
Finally, the commission is re-instituting its Historical Documentary Editing Fellowships in FY 2007. Only current and active NHPRC-supported publications projects are eligible to apply, and the projects themselves will be responsible for screening and hiring their own fellows through the NHPRC grant funds. Applicants should demonstrate the capability to provide strong post-graduate training in documentary editing, including document collection, accessioning, and control; selection; transcription; annotation; proofreading; indexing; and project management.
The commission provides this funding to ensure that recent History Ph.D.s or advanced graduate students have exposure to historical editing techniques and careers. The host institution may use a limited amount of funds to cover costs of recruiting a fellow and giving the fellow limited travel and educational opportunities. Awards are for one year grants of $55,000 each, with no cost sharing requirements. Depending on the quality of proposals and availability of funding, the commission expects to fund one to two fellowship projects, each with a single fellow. The full announcement is available at:
http://www.archives.gov/nhprc/announcement/editing.html . All announcements are also available via the NHPRC website at: http://www.grants.gov .
8. BITS AND BYTES
Due to space constraints, no postings this week.
9. ARTICLES OF INTEREST:
Two postings this week: In “Road Plans Put Stonehenge Status At Risk” (The Guardian; 14 June 2006), the British newspaper report that Stonehenge risks being stripped of its world heritage site status because of government proposal to ease traffic congestion at the monument. For the article go to: http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1796829,00.html.
The second posting, “Archeologists Try to Save Ancient Sites” (Yahoo News; 9 June 2006), discusses a preservation problem a little closer to home. Government funded archeologists are making a concerted effort to survey ancient sites in Utah before looters get to them first. For the article that also discusses the efforts of various governmental agencies to celebrate the centennial of the Antiquities Act go to: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060609/ap_on_sc/antiquities_act_2.