By Jeremy Dibbell

Among the stories in the September/October MHS e-newsletter is a short piece highlighting some recent and very exciting grants we’ve received. They include:

– $15,000 from the Library of Congress for its “The End of Slavery: Documents and Dilemmas” program. MHS staff will take 20 documents from the LOC From Slavery to Freedom digitized collections and 20 documents from the MHS African Americans and the End of Slavery and Images of the Antislavery Movement in Massachusetts digitized collections to develop educational materials for teachers based on both institutions’ resources.

– a $22,100 matching grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which will help the Society create and promote exceptional public programs and exhibitions to the community. As an investment in the MHS, the grant signifies that the Society provides a high level of quality in its programs, services, and administrative ability.  The staff of the MHS would especially like to recognize MHS Fellow Gov. Deval Patrick and the state legislators who supported the MCC, and in turn the MHS, particularly Sen. Steven A. Tolman and MHS Fellow Rep. Byron Rushing.

– a grant from the Ruby W. and LaVon P. Linn Foundation to replace a traditional microfilm reader with a microfilm scanner. The new equipment produces high resolution digital scans of microfilmed manuscripts, allowing researchers and staff to print, e-mail, or save the relevant pages to a CD, USB drive, or hard drive. We library folks are very excited about this one; we’re getting a demo of a possible scanner today, and please stay tuned for more information.

You can read more about each of these grants here, and sign up to receive the e-newsletter here.