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Funding secured for congressional archives enhancements, civics and history education

West Virginia University Libraries received $1.5 million in congressionally directed spending to expand utility, usability and capacity of the American Congress Digital Archives Portal and to equip West Virginia and other states’ K-12 educators with resources and tools for refortified civics and history education. 

Funding for the Congressional Archives for Education project was awarded to WVU Libraries, alongside institutional project partners, in preparation for and celebration of our nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary in 2026. 

Driving advancement in WVU’s mission as an R1, land-grant institution to improve the lives and livelihoods of students, alumni, community and all West Virginians, WVU Libraries and project partners will add thousands of items from congressional archives across six states and develop educational resources for K-12 civics and history curriculum. WVU Libraries will ensure West Virginia’s educators are aware of and can access the portal’s new primary sources and educational resources.

“The records of the U.S. Congress document the democratic process, the development of public policy and the federal body closest to the American people, from America’s founding through the present,” Danielle Emerling, associate director of WVU Libraries’ West Virginia & Regional History Center (WVRHC) and Modern Congressional and Political Papers Collection Archivist, said. “They are vital for understanding Congress — the largest and most diverse, but arguably least understood, branch of government. We are honored to lead this expansion and outreach project for the portal and make more congressional archives, as well as civics and history curriculum, available to all and especially West Virginia’s K-12 educators.” 

We are honored to lead this expansion and outreach project for the portal and make more congressional archives, as well as civics and history curriculum, available to all. Danielle Emerlingassociate director, WVRHC, WVU Libraries

Going beyond the study of Congress and its role in American government, the value of these archives lay within their capacity to illustrate the country’s social, cultural and political development narratives.  

Congressional records to be added include more than 8,000 archival documents, audiovisual assets and photographs. Notably, West Virginia congressional papers related to environment and energy legislation, such as the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, will be added. Additionally, items from Senator Matthew Mansfield Neely, Senator Rush Dew Holt, Congressman Arch Moore and other congressional collections currently stewarded by WVU Libraries’ WVRHC will be added. Partner institutions will contribute materials related to civil rights legislation, congressional delegation foreign oversight trips, party policy and leadership, advocacy work for Vietnam prisoners of war (POWs) and missing in action (MIAs) and more. 

The American Congress Digital Archives Portal addresses many practical access barriers to using congressional archives. Unlike presidential papers, which are centralized in one location, congressional collections are geographically dispersed across institutions large and small. Presently, the portal provides scholars, educators and the public with easy access to geographically dispersed collections and approximately 10,000 civically important documents about the legislative branch and American public policy. 

Educational resources, curriculum and teacher guides for K-12 civics and history instruction will be developed using archives in the portal and will be made available online. WVU Libraries and partner institutions will host outreach events for educators in their home states and regions to engage with the portal's new primary sources and educational resources. 

The funding comes thanks to U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin who supported and won approval the WVU Libraries’ congressional directed spending request in the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations process. 

“WVU Libraries has led the way with historical efforts that will benefit generations of historians, educators and students for years to come. I have witnessed this firsthand during visits to campus – most recently last year when I hosted the Archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan,” Senator Capito said. “I am thrilled the university will be receiving funding to support a new tool that will help enhance their efforts, specifically making documents and resources easier for students in West Virginia to access and give them an opportunity to understand monumental moments in both West Virginia’s and America’s history in the context of which they happened. As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I was proud to help advocate for these funds to build out this program and I look forward to its implementation.” 

Building on the successful implementation of initial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities to build a prototype portal, the Catalyst Fund at Lyrasis and the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress, the American Congress Digital Archives Portal is the first-ever online portal to bring together congressional archives from institutional repositories throughout the United States and provide open access to these largely untapped resources via a single tool. 

WVU Libraries is partnering with other institutions that hold congressional archives, including the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma, the Dirksen Congressional Center, the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at University of Georgia, and the University of Hawaiʻi Manoa Library to execute the Congressional Archives for Education project. The project and the American Congress Digital Archives Portal are guided by an advisory board composed of leading individuals in the areas of congressional archives and scholarship. 

WVU Libraries’ WVRHC holds archives of West Virginia’s congressional delegations from the founding of the state in 1863 to the present. Resources from several collections are included in, and will be added to, the American Congress Digital Archives Portal. 

For more information about the American Congress Digital Archives Portal or the Congressional Archives for Education project, please visit congressarchives.org.  


-WVU Libraries-  

MEDIA CONTACT: Ellis Willard  

Director of Public Relations & Events  

WVU Libraries  

304-293-0306; ellis.willard@mail.wvu.edu