WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced $28.4 million in grants for 239 humanities projects across the country. These grants will support a documentary about the 1873 Colfax Massacre, the bloodiest instance of racial violence during Reconstruction, and the development of Archaeorover, an autonomous robot that uses ground-penetrating radar to search for buried sites, structures, and artifacts of historical and archaeological significance, and other humanities projects.
“The grants announced today demonstrate the resilience and breadth of our nation’s humanities institutions and practitioners,” said NEH’s Acting Chairman Adam Wolfson. “From education programs that will enrich teaching in college and high school classrooms to multi-institutional research initiatives, these excellent projects will advance the teaching, preservation, and understanding of history and culture.”
The four grants awarded in Connecticut total $417,823. For more information, read the full press release from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Hartford
Connecticut State Library, $147,864
[National Digital Newspaper Program]
Project Title: Connecticut Digital Newspaper Project
Project Description: Digitization of 100,000 pages of Connecticut newspapers, dating from 1690 to 1963, as part of the state’s participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
Mashantucket
Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, $10,000
[Preservation Assistance Grants]
Project Title: Preserving Our Collections: A Needs Assessment*
Project Description: Preservation assessment, purchase of supplies, and staff training the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center’s archival and special collections focusing on the Indigenous people of southern New England. Among the notable items are a first-edition (1663) and second-edition (1685) of the Eliot Bible, translated from English to the Massachusetts language (Wampanoag) by the English missionary Reverend John Eliot, which marks the first phonetic representation of the Algonquian language subfamily.
New London
Connecticut College, $199,959
[Scholarly Editions and Translations]
Project Title: Translation of the Gongyang and Guliang Commentaries to Spring and Autumn Annals: An Early Chinese Text
Project Description: Preparation for print and digital publication of an edition and annotated translation of two commentaries to The Spring and Autumn Annals from classical Chinese, written by Confucius (551–479 BCE).
Storrs
Micki McElya, $60,000
[Public Scholars]
University of Connecticut
Project Title: No More Miss America! How Protesting the 1968 Pageant Changed a Nation
Project Description: Writing a narrative history of the 1968 Miss America pageant, a turning point in the women’s movement.
*Note: Projects denoted with an asterisk have received a portion of their funding through NEH’s A More Perfect Union initiative, designed to demonstrate and enhance the critical role the humanities play in our nation and support projects that will help Americans commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
