Each year Historic New England awards a Herbert and Louise Whitney Fund Community Preservation Grant to a small or medium-size heritage preservation organization in each New England state. The grants support projects that save and expand the stories shared in New England communities. In 2024 Historic New England awarded grants of $1250 to six organizations.
The grant to the Institute for American Indian Studies in Connecticut will fund the acquisition of materials, including books, inkwells, and chalkboards, for the traveling 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.
The Swan’s Island Historical Society in Maine will research and display Abenaki artifacts at the society’s newly rehabilitated museum. The grant will help purchase 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.
The Somerville Museum in Massachusetts will launch “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 19th century.
The Canaan Historical Society in New Hampshire will create a 40-page nonfiction, graphic pamphlet about Noyes Academy, the first interracial coed academy in the U.S. When the school opened in 1835, it admitted 28 white students and 14 black students.
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 recordings, photography, and artifacts to promote pride and a connection to roots and community among Latinos.
The Norwich Community Collaborative, Inc., in Vermont will use the funds for the final planning stages of bringing the historic Norwich Grange Hall back into community use by commissioning an architectural design consultation for rehabilitation of the porch and a historic interior paint color analysis.
Originally published in the January 2025 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2025 Maine Antique Digest
