The search continues for all Lincoln documents
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The Papers of Abraham Lincoln receives two major grants to continue its search for all documents written by or to LincolnÂ
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Springfield, IL – The search for all documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln will continue, aided in large part by two major grants from federal agencies.
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 The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) will fund the Papers of Abraham Lincoln with a $143,446 grant in their Publishing Historical Records category. This grant helps fund projects that document major historical figures and important eras and social movements in the history of the nation. The NHPRC is the sole federal funding agency whose focus is documenting the heritage of the United States. In existence since 1934, it has awarded grants for preserving, publishing, and providing access to vital historical documents.
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 As previously announced by U.S. Senator Richard Durbin, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded The Papers of Abraham Lincoln matching funds of $250,000 over the next three years, a $50,000 increase over the project’s current three-year grant of $200,000 from NEH. The Scholarly Editions and Translations grant supports the preparation of editions and translations of pre-existing texts and documents that are currently inaccessible or available in inadequate editions. Grants typically support editions and translations of significant literary, philosophical, and historical matters.
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Both grants are being awarded to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation for disbursement to The Papers of Abraham Lincoln.Â
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“The receipt of these two grants represents both validation of our progress thus far and vital support for our continuing efforts to locate and make available the documentary record of Abraham Lincoln’s fascinating life and career†said The Papers of Abraham Lincoln Editor Daniel Stowell.Â
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Both the NHPRC and NEH awards are effective July 1, 2010 and will support salaries for project staff who are conducting research at the National Archives and Library of Congress in Washington, DC and who are transcribing and annotating documents in Springfield. Both organizations supported The Lincoln Legal Papers, the predecessor to The Papers of Abraham Lincoln, with a series of grants between 1991 and 2006. These latest awards represent the fourth annual grant to The Papers of Abraham Lincoln by the NHPRC and the third multi-year grant from the NEH since 2004.
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The Papers of Abraham Lincoln is a project of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois whose goal is to identify, digitize, transcribe, and publish comprehensively all documents written by or to Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime, 1809 – 1865. The Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield and the Abraham Lincoln Association serve as project co-sponsors. They have completed The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases, published in 2008 by the University of Virginia Press; and The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln, Second Edition published online in 2009. More information about the project can be found at http://www.papersofabrahamlincoln.org.
