Easton institutions receive award

The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor and Northampton County Historical and Genealogical Society are among the 317 national beneficiaries to receive a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) CARES Act grant award.

The grants, which total $40.3 million, will support projects at museums, historic sites, archives, universities, and other cultural organizations affected by the coronavirus pandemic. They will enable recipients to retain staff, digitize projects, and take educational content and programming online. Local museums shuttered their doors in March and are starting to open again, but the shutdowns and uncertainty about the fall have had a profound impact on their programming, especially for schools.

NCHGS will create virtual field trip opportunities for K-12 students and distancelearning modules that highlight a range of eras and local history. The NEH CARES award will enable digitization of collections, filming of school tours, and development of interactive lessons to serve local schools and beyond. Topics range from Lenape lifeways and colonial settlement to major industry and Sigal Museum’s award winning Destination: Northampton County exhibition that celebrates immigration, diversity, and community building.

The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor will be utilizing its NEH CARES award to improve access to the collections of its signature program, the National Canal Museum, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Created in 1965 as an independent federal agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities by funding selected, peer-reviewed proposals from around the nation. Additional information about the National Endowment for the Humanities and its grant programs is available at www.neh.gov.