Interpreting America's Historic Places Planning Grants

As part of the NEH's We the People program, Interpreting America’s Historic Places grants support public humanities projects that exploit the evocative power of historic places to address themes and issues central to American history and culture, including those that advance knowledge of how the founding principles of the United States have shaped American history and culture for more than two hundred years. Interpreting America’s Historic Places planning grants support planning that leads to the interpretation of a single historic site or house, a series of sites, an entire neighborhood, a town or community, or a larger geographical region. The place taken as a whole must be significant to American history, and the project must convey its historic importance to visitors. The audience for Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects is the general public. (For other public humanities projects that may not focus so closely on historic places, refer to the planning grant guidelines for America’s Historical and Cultural Organizations.) The goals of Interpreting America’s Historic Places grants are to enhance lifelong learning in American history by connecting nationally significant events, people, ideas, stories, and traditions with specific places; foster the development of interpretive programs for the public that address central events, themes, and issues in American history; and encourage consultation with humanities scholars and history organizations in the development of heritage tourism destinations. Interpreting America’s Historic Places projects should interpret a place that played a significant role in American history; enrich the visitor experience at one or more historic places by interpreting these places in light of broader themes in American history; make use of the specific features of one or more historic places—the site, its location, buildings, or other natural or built features—as integral parts of the proposed interpretation; be based on sound humanities scholarship; involve humanities scholars in all phases of development and implementation; approach the subject thematically, analytically, and interpretively through an appropriate variety of perspectives; interest broad audiences; and employ appealing and accessible program formats that will actively engage the public in learning.