NEH Awards Papers of Andrew Jackson Project $325,000
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced $43.1 million in awards for 2018 humanities projects across the country. The Papers of Andrew Jackson project received $325,000 to prepare Volumes 11, 12, and 13 for publication, covering the presidential years 1833 through 1835. This grant is the second highest among the 21 awarded this year within the NEH Scholarly Editions and Translations program.
“This generous grant is the largest we have ever received from the NEH and comes as a welcome show of confidence in the quality and significance of our work,” says Dan Feller, professor of history and director of The Papers of Andrew Jackson project. “Together with the substantial increase in support we received this year from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, this three-year NEH award ensures that our progress towards completion of the series will continue and even accelerate.”
The project, which began in 1971, collects and publishes all of Andrew Jackson’s extant literary record – letters, notes and memoranda, military and executive orders, and drafts of official papers and speeches. These original documents furnish the foundation for everything scholars know about Jackson. The Jackson volumes are heavily utilized by historians, biographers, archivists, librarians, genealogists, journalists, and screenwriters. They have been extensively cited and praised not only in scholarly works, but also in best-selling books, and on television, radio, and websites. The 10-volume series is also available through UT’s online archive: trace.tennessee.edu/utk_jackson.
“Jackson is an inescapably important figure in our nation’s history,” Feller says. “From its beginning, the aim of the Jackson papers project has been to promote our understanding of Jackson and his era by making available the crucial primary sources that show us, directly, what he and those around him said and did.”
This round of funding is NEH’s third and last for fiscal year 2018 and will support vital research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities. These peer-reviewed grants were awarded in addition to $47 million in annual operating support provided to the national network of state and local humanities councils during fiscal year 2018.
“From nationally broadcast documentaries to summer workshops for high school teachers, the projects receiving funding today strengthen and sustain the cultural life of our nation and its citizens,” says NEH Chairman Jon Parrish Peede.
In addition to the NEH, the Papers of Andrew Jackson project is supported by the UT College of Arts and Sciences, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), and the Tennessee Historical Commission (THC). The NHPRC and THC recently renewed their annual grants to help fund the publication of Volume 11, which is slated for publication in 2019.
