Historic New England awards six Community Preservation Grants

Each year, Historic New England awards one Herbert and Louise Whitney Fund Community Preservation Grant to a small to medium-size heritage preservation organization in each New England state.

Historic New England is committed to telling the whole story of the region’s history. These grants support projects that save and expand the stories shared in our communities. This year, Historic New England awarded grants of $1,250 to the following six organizations.

Connecticut

The Institute for American Indian Studies

The grant will fund the acquisition of materials, including books, inkwells, and chalkboards for the travelling exhibition Uncivil Education. The exhibition investigates New England’s long history of using educational institutions as tools to assimilate Indigenous communities into Euro-American culture.

Maine

Swan’s Island Historical Society

The funds will be used to research and display Abenaki artifacts at the historical society’s newly rehabilitated museum. The grant will help with the purchase of a display case, archive trays, and other exhibition materials. Any remaining money will fund a trip to the Abbe Museum for consultation on how best to interpret Indigenous objects.

Massachusetts

Somerville Museum

In expectation of Rev250 events, the museum is launching History Lines: A Map of Colonial and Revolutionary Medford and Somerville. The map will have links to audio tours, translations, and other resources to highlight the area’s history from pre-Colonial times through the early-nineteenth century.

New Hampshire

Canaan Historical Society

The historical society will use the funds to create a forty-page non-fiction graphic pamphlet about Noyes Academy, the first interracial, co-ed academy in the United States. When the school opened in 1835, it admitted twenty-eight white students and fourteen Black students.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island Latino Arts in Central Falls

Building on the work funded by a 2022 Community Preservation Grant to record local LatinX oral histories, Rhode Island Latino Arts will produce Somos Rhode Island. This exhibition will include the recordings, photography, and artifacts to promote pride and a sense of connection to roots and community among Latinos.

Vermont

Norwich Community Collaborative, Inc.

The funds will help the Norwich Community Collaborative in their final planning stages of bringing the historic Grange Hall back into community use. The grant supports funding to commission an architectural design consultation for porch rehabilitation and historic interior paint color analysis.

See a list of previous recipients.

Herbert and Louise Whitney Fund for Community Preservation

The endowment fund that supports Historic New England’s Community Preservation Grants Program is named in honor of Herbert and Louise Whitney to recognize their deep appreciation and love of all things New England, in particular the Bishop family farm in North Woodstock, Connecticut.

Media Contact: Susanna Crampton, [email protected]