Promotion of the Humanities Division of Preservation and Access

This program supports enhanced free, public access to historical U.S. newspapers. Recipients will digitize newspapers published in U.S. states or jurisdictions for ingest into Chronicling America, produce title essays to accompany digitized newspapers, and create educational materials and/or other digital initiatives to increase the use of Chronicling America.

Eligible applicants include U.S. nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, public and 501(c)(3) accredited institutions of higher education, state and local governmental agencies, and federally recognized Native American Tribal governments.

NEH staff review all applications for eligibility, completeness, and responsiveness. The agency then conducts a peer review process for all applications that pass this initial screening. Peer reviewers are experts in their fields with knowledge and expertise relevant to the activities that the program supports. NEH instructs peer reviewers to evaluate applications according to established review criteria. Peer reviewers must comply with federal ethics rules governing conflicts of interest. NEH program officers supplement the peer reviewers’ comments to address matters of fact or significant points that the peer reviewers have overlooked. They then make funding recommendations to the National Council on the Humanities and the NEH Chairman. The National Council meets at least twice each year to review applications and advise the NEH Chairman. By law, the Chair has the sole authority to make final funding decisions.

Approximately 9-12 months after the application deadline.