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| Delaware Humanities Forum | May 2011 Newsletter |
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Greetings!
Like so many Forums nationwide, the Delaware Humanities Forum will be launching new programs designed to engage discussion around issues that matter, words that matter, and conversations that change the way we think about ourselves and our personal socio-political attitudes. So this month, to exercise your synapses, think about mothers, war and commemoration.
Dan Pritchett, a popular speaker in both DHF's Visiting Scholars and Speakers Bureau Programs, raised an intriguing cluster of questions that shoot to the core of wartime activity in anticipation of discussions and lectures to commemorate our nation's sesquicentennial anniversary of the American Civil War. Dan raises an idea--the measure of patriotism. Whose weight lifts lighter he asks? Who among participants in wartime provides the best example of patriotism? Civil War scholars know the battles engaged two social tiers of combatants, and in the field both Northern and Southern soldiers were supported by women and children. Yet during the period of the Civil War, 1861-1865, just white men enjoyed the benefits of full citizenship. Women and children and nearly all Black men and women endured vagaries of liberty, freedom, and justice. But on close scrutiny women, children, and Black soldiers on either side were real witnesses, real soldiers, real participants without access to citizenship. How do we measure their patriotism?
For women, patriotism has often been too dear. And the weight, at least as far back as 150 years, is easily recognizable and visible on Mother's Day if we look carefully at the day and its origins. There seem to be two explanations for the day begun sometime after the Civil War, by women, for women: to commemorate war-fallen loved ones and to raise awareness of poor health conditions. The Northern attribution suggests Boston's Julia Howe wanted to recognize loss and its measure, visibly, in public cemeteries, church gardens, and former plantation landscapes by staking each war combatant's grave with the nation's flag. Her gesture was a subterfuge for peace efforts. The Southern narrative belongs to the Jarvises--mother and daughter--both Anna. Their cause was the latter concern, especially in the Appalachian communities. The Jarvis women wanted a mother's day that mothers themselves demanded for each other and for the families they were bearing and raising: clean water and abundant food for all. It is a wonder that Mother's Day in the United States remains one informal celebration when, in the face of it all, cemeteries on mother's day reflect the lost hopes of these three women. What is the measure of their patriotism?
Sincerely,
Marilyn P. Whittington
Executive Director |
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| Advocacy: Part 2
Delaware and the National Endowment for the Humanities
An advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.
- National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965
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Alexander Calder sculpture, "Mountains and Clouds", in the Hart Senate Office Building, just outside Senator Carper's office. Click here to see more photos from our trip to Washington. |
The state-based programs of the National Endowment for the Humanities, including DHF and its 55 counterparts, are only a part of its efforts to support the infrastructure for humanities education and research in this country. The Endowment's core programs, divisions, and special initiatives are: Research, Education, Preservation & Access, Challenge Grants, Public Programs, the Office of Digital Humanities, and the We the People and Bridging Cultures initiatives. A wide range of educational institutions, non-profit organizations, and individual scholars around the country benefit from these programs. The Endowment received 5,205 grant applications requesting over $515 million in the 2010 fiscal year. NEH was able to fund 16.6% of these peer-reviewed project proposals. This is in comparison to the most recent rate of 25-32% funding reported by the National Science Foundation, a federal agency parallel to NEH in its operations and mission to advance research and teaching for the academic fields under its purview.
Between 2006 and 2010, institutions and individuals in Delaware have received
$5 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Delaware Humanities Forum. Below are some examples of these projects:
Winterthur/University of Delaware Master's-level Art Conservation Program. This is one of only five programs in the country training conservation professionals to care for America's cultural heritage. The program received three grants totaling $737,600 to fund study for thirty future conservators of material culture.
Old Swedes Church Foundation in Wilmington received a $6,000 grant to conduct a preservation survey of its early records and manuscripts documenting the history of the New Sweden Colony and of the congregation of Holy Trinity Old Swedes Church from 1697.
Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation was granted $40,000 to expand its interpretive programs in the First State Heritage Park in Dover, including new living history programs, self-guided audio tours, and signage covering the years 1774-1792.
Hagley Museum and Library was awarded $450,000 to help renovate the Hall of Records, which houses the early archives of the Du Pont Company and a growing number of other American businesses.
Corbit Calloway Memorial Library in Odessa received a $3,900 grant to preserve its special collection of 150 oversized maps and posters depicting counties and towns on the Delmarva Peninsula during the 19th and early 20th Centuries.
Delaware Industrial History Initiative is a grant program administered by DHF for organizations digitally documenting and making accessible Delaware's industrial history ($79,520 grant).
Delaware Art Museum used a $40,000 planning grant for the exhibition and catalogue of "Seeing the City: Sloan's New York", the first major traveling exhibition to present significant new scholarship on American realist painter and illustrator John Sloan since 1970.
Delaware's Operating Railroad Museum, Historic Red Clay Valley, operator of the Wilmington and Western Railroad was awarded $6,000 to conduct a preservation assessment of its collection of documents and artifacts on railroad history and operations in northern Delaware. |
DHF Goes to the Movies
DHF's Film Series Continues May 11 at Theatre N  | | Click the image to watch the trailer. |
Join us Wednesday, May 11, 2011, at 7 p.m. at Theatre N in downtown Wilmington for a screening of Waste Land, the second film in a series presented by DHF. This documentary by Lucy Walker was nominated in 2011 for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Filmed over nearly three years, the documentary follows artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Click here to purchase your ticket from Theatre N. On Wednesday, June 8, we will be showing Why I Write, featuring Delaware's own Twin Poets, Al Mills and Nnamdi Chukwuocha, DHF's former scholars-in-residence. Click here for more information. |
 Wine Tasting
Fundraiser on May 13 at Deerfield Fine Wines
This Friday the 13th, our wine tasting is the luckiest place you can be! Join us from 5 to 8 p.m. at Deerfield Fine Wines in Newark (205 Shoppes at Louviers, off Papermill Road). The suggested donation of $10 will support DHF and its efforts to deliver humanities programming to all Delawareans. Come out for an evening of wine, hors d'oeuvres, and good company. We will also be raffling off a number of themed baskets you won't want to miss!
For more information, contact Gus Mercante, DHF Program and Development Associate, by email (gmercante@dhf.org) or by phone, (302) 657-0650 x13. |
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Did
You Know? |
Wilmington's historic train station was designed by renowned 19th-century Philadelphia architect Frank Furness. The Friends of the Furness Railroad District, an organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the value and history of the Wilmington Train Station and nearby buildings designed by Furness, recently installed a permanent exhibit, funded partly by DHF, in the newly renovated station. For more information on Furness and his work in our area, visit FFRD's website. On Wednesday, May 25, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., join FFRD for its annual meeting at the Delaware History Museum (504 Market Street, Wilmington). After the brief meeting, local historian Sally O'Byrne will speak at 6:45 p.m. on "The History of Wilmington's Waterfront". For more information and to RSVP, email friendsoffurness@gmail.com or call (302) 654-9817. | |
The Delaware Humanities Forum has offered programs that connect people, cultures and ideas for over 35 years. Through literature, art history, material culture, philosophy, civic discourse and other humanities disciplines, DHF helps citizens, scholars and nonprofit organizations accumulate a balanced body of knowledge about Delaware, making it available to the public now and in perpetuity. In 2011 we are pleased to continue our focus on Delaware's industrial history, to safeguard the history of the workers, structures and products that are critical to understanding the culture of the First State.
Please consider becoming a Friend of the Forum today by contributing to our Annual Fund. Friends of the Forum are the first to find out about opportunities, such as our Humanities Salons, and through the generous support of our Friends, the Forum offers nearly all of our programs free of charge to the citizens of Delaware.
Your donation in any amount will be most appreciated and wisely used. Click here to make a donation online today. |
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About the Delaware Humanities Forum
The humanities-subjects which include literature, ethics, political science and history-help people make a connection between their own lives and other people, cultures, and ideas. Through grants and public program offerings, the Delaware Humanities Forum builds bridges to connect the daily life and work of people to the universe of human experience, thought, and imagination. The Forum brings the public together with cultural, educational, and civic institutions statewide, and focuses on issues of public interest and concern.
As a state division of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Delaware Humanities Forum supports organizations by awarding grants and implementing project initiatives such as lectures, symposia, exhibitions, classroom programs, and media projects. Your non-profit organization, school, library, or government agency may qualify for funding from the Forum and can obtain subject matter experts for lectures and presentations. To learn more about funding opportunities and the other resources available through the Delaware Humanities Forum, visit our website at http://www.dhf.org or call 302.657.0650 or toll free 800.752.2060. | |
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