WVU Libraries received $1.5 million in congressionally directed spending to expand
utility, usability, and capacity of the History Center-led
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.
The West Virginia & Regional History Center (WVRHC) 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. The Center’s Educators Advisory Board, which includes local middle and high school educators, will help with planning and curriculum for an educators’ professional development day to be held at the History Center later this year. Educators will learn how to find and analyze archival materials, use historical themes from the portal, and incorporate primary sources in lesson plans.
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 former Sen. Matthew Mansfield Neely, former Sen. Rush Dew Holt, former Congressman Arch Moore, and other congressional collections currently stewarded by WVU Libraries’ WVRHC will be added.
The project, which already includes more than 17,000 archival items, received initial support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Catalyst Fund at Lyrasis, and the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress. New funding comes thanks to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and former Sen. Joe Manchin who supported and won approval for the WVU Libraries’ congressional directed spending request.
For more information about the American Congress Digital Archives Portal or the Congressional Archives for Education project, please visit congressarchives.org.