AFS Archives Selected for Coveted NHPRC Grant
AFS received official notification that its proposal for funding for organizing and identifying collections related to World War II held by the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs was approved by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC.) The NHPRC is the grantmaking affiliate of the National Archives and Records Administration.
The NHPRC was created in the United States along with the National Archives in 1934, and has had grantmaking authorization since 1964. Through its very competitive grant funding process, the NHPRC helps non-federal institutions preserve and make broadly accessible records of historical value and helps locate, preserve, and provide public access to documents, photographs, maps, and other historical materials.
This one-year grant in the amount of USD 61,839 will be used to survey, describe, and provide access to the records that evidence the work of the American Field Service during World War II and the heritage of AFS in the postwar period; make the Archive collections accessible to researchers and the general public; and establish, produce, and disseminate descriptions of items held in the World War II Archives. The work to organize the Archive's records are especially significant as AFS prepare to celebrate the centennial of the founding of the American Field Service in 2014-2015.
Concrete outcomes of the grant-funded project include:
*A survey of the WWI and WWII records, papers, and photos, including more than 10,000 WWII photographic images and negatives and audio and video recordings.
*The collections will be described and organized so that they may be easily located in multiple national and local databases for use by the research community.
*The AFS website will be used proactively to disseminate information about the American Field Service and its century of public service and intercultural exchange.
"The grant from the NHPRC has allowed AFS to hire a full-time project archivist, Nicole Milano, to identify and describe the collections related to World War II and upload those descriptions to online repositories where they will be easily accessible to those interested in the American Field Service and its history," said Carlos Porro, manager of resource development and communications at AFS, who now serves as the project manager for the NHPRC grant. "We will also be able to update the AFS website to be used as a portal for information about the American Field Service and attract users to the wealth of resources that the AFS archival materials represent."
With the move of the AFS Intercultural Programs office to the sixth floor of the Masonic Lodge Building, space limitations required a relocation of the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs, Inc. to AFS-USA. Grant-funded activities will take place in the Archives' new location at the AFS-USA headquarters at 1 Whitehall Street in New York City.
Posted January 1, 2011
