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ALBF Announces New Round of Grants (August 1, 2011)

For immediate release Contact: Harold Holzer (646) 894-6902

LINCOLN BICENTENNIAL FOUNDATION
Announces New Round of Grands for Lincoln-Related Projects Across the Country

Actor Stephen Lang reads the words of Lincoln at Meeting in Washington. Photo: Henry F. Ballone.

(August 1, 2011)
The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation (ALBF) today announced its latest round of grants to museum exhibitions, symposia, education programs, preservation efforts, and other projects around the country that plan to emphasize the Lincoln theme during the Civil War Sesquicentennial.
The Foundation board voted to approve the latest round of grants at its July 18 meeting in Washington.

Support will go to the following organizations:

  • The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D. C., to co-sponsor its forthcoming Civil War sesquicentennial exhibition, The African-American Experience During the Civil War, particularly to fund professional development workshops for the show; and also funding to produce a family guide for another forthcoming Portrait Gallery exhibition on Civil War-era photographer Alexander Gardner.
  • The Camp Douglas Restoration Foundation in Chicago, to help fund preliminary archaeological investigation at the site of the Civil War training and prisoner-of-war camp built on land owned by, and named for, Senator Stephen A. Douglas.
  • The College of Charleston in South Carolina (the city where the Civil War began 150 years ago with the firing on Fort Sumter in April 1861) to co-sponsor a 2013 conference of the African Literature Association focused on the sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation.
  • The Lincoln Monument Association in Springfield, Illinois, to support preliminary outreach, fundraising, and marketing for the rehabilitation and preservation of Abraham Lincoln’s tomb and other historic monuments at historic Oak Ridge Cemetery.
  • The Huntington Library in San Marino, California, to co-sponsor its 2012 exhibition: A Strange and Fearful Interest: Death, Mourning, and Memory in the American Civil War.
  • The Newberry Library in Chicago, to co-sponsor a two-day seminar, Teachers as Scholars: Abraham Lincoln.
  • The National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to help fund the creation of an interactive component of its recently introduced virtual exhibit, Meet Mr. Lincoln.
  • The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History in New York, to re-print its acclaimed “History in a Box” on Abraham Lincoln, and distribute it to history departments in schools across the country.
  • The Lincoln Studies Center at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, to co-sponsor a number of initiatives, including new educational outreach programs, document transcription, and sesquicentennial symposia.
  • The New York State Archives Partnership Trust in Albany, New York, to support Civil War sesquicentennial events, particularly a 2012 Albany Law School scholarly conference on Lincoln and Civil Liberties.
  • President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in Washington, D.C., to support and co-sponsor its annual Cottage Conversation lecture series.
  • The Lincoln at the Crossroads Alliance to co-sponsor its forthcoming 150th anniversary re-enactment and conference to commemorate the Grand Review of the Army at Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia in 1861.

Commented Harold Holzer, Chairman of the Foundation: “We are proud and delighted to support all these institutions and initiatives, and to endorse their compelling plans to keep Abraham Lincoln at the forefront of the national conversation during the Civil War Sesquicentennial.  Their efforts promise to galvanize significant numbers of scholars, students, and enthusiasts to further explore the Lincoln legacy and its significance to both historical commemoration and the national future.  The Foundation remains committed to stimulating that dialogue.”

The ALBF is the official successor organization of the U. S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, which oversaw observances of Lincoln’s 200th birthday.  Members of the foundation are: Orville Vernon Burton (vice chairman), Thomas Campbell (treasurer), Charles Scholz (secretary), Darrel Bigham, David Lawrence Jr., Antonio Mora, Edna Greene Medford, Jean Powers Soman, and Frank J. Williams.

Applicants for future funding are encouraged to log onto the ALBF website (abrahamlincoln200.org) to consult guidelines, or to write the chairman for further information at 205 East 78th Street, #14E, New York, NY  10075.  The next meeting and funding cycle are scheduled for January 2012.