Interpretive Grants Overview
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Interpretive Grant Overview Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area (FFNHA) invites partner organizations to apply for Interpretive Grants. FFNHA awards small grants ($500-$1,500) and large grants ($1,501-$5,000) for projects that interpret their site’s story and connects it to the heritage area’s rich history. Grants will be awarded for projects aligned with the goals of Freedom’s Frontier, and one or more of these significant themes: Shaping the Frontier, Missouri Kansas Border War, Enduring Struggles for Freedom. Successful grants will be rooted in a context involving historic events in the heritage area that have broad regional or national impact Interpretive Grant Review Committee Grant Review Committee members are selected by the Advisory Committee in cooperation with staff. The committee is made up of a minimum of five members, with at least 25% being from each state. At least one member should represent historical societies and museums; at least one should represent convention & visitors bureaus or destination management organizations; at least one should represent battlefields, historic markers or trails. Committee members are selected because of their expertise in a program area, their knowledge of the heritage area and ability to make objective recommendations on grant funding. The committee reviews grant applications and ensure that grants awarded comply with FFNHA themes, mission and other grant guidelines. Interpretive Grant Awards Master List February 2012 Clinton Lake: The Clinton Lake Historical Society Incorporated (Wakarusa River Valley Heritage Museum) hosted a historical sites tour of Wakarusa Valley area. The sites have Civil War and Underground Railroad significance. Grant Request: $1,354.00 Eudora Area Historical Society: Eudora Area Historical Society created programs to supplement the Smithsonian Institution’s The Way We Worked Traveling Exhibit. The project explored Eudora’s African American community from the late 19th Century to the present, focusing on the kinds of jobs recently freed slaves had and how the jobs of Eudora’s black population changed and/or improved over time. The exhibit also considered discrimination and other struggles the black population would likely have encountered in 19th Century Kansas. Grant Request: $1,250.00 Franklin County Historical Society: Native Neighbors from Franklin County’s Past reached out to tribes of the Native Americans who once lived in Franklin County as natives or emigrants before white settlement. These groups were invited to share their cultural and artistic heritage as well as their modern lives with Franklin County and area citizens. Grant Request: $5,000.00 Vernon County Historical Society: This interpretive exhibit relevant to the history of the Missouri/Kansas Border War Period incorporated visual, textual, and three-dimensional facets to create a dynamic audience experience by creating modern interpretive panels to replace older and less dynamic exhibits. While creating the new panels, project staff used suggestions outlined in the 2010 FFNHA Peer Location Review Report. The new interpretation engages the public to ask and answer common questions about the Border War period. Grant Request: $3,000.00 May 2012 Douglas County Historical Society/Watkins Community Museum of History: Watkins Museum staff created and tested a Pilot Educational Program for 3rd Graders and Family Groups Exploring the Development of Lawrence as a Frontier Community. Participants use primary source documents and reproduction artifacts to make connections about how Lawrence in the 1860-70s was alike and/or different from the city as it is today. The grant allowed for development and testing of the pilot program. Program activities build awareness of Lawrence’s founding story and the experiences of people who settled the frontier. The program supports Kansas education standards for 3rd grade. Grant Request: $1,475.00 The George Historic Cemetery Association, Inc: The George Historic Cemetery Heritage Park, on unused ground in the cemetery, commemorates the bravery of hundreds of Missouri families who suffered during the Civil War. The park area has wild flowers. Along a Heritage Trail, to be cut through the field of flowers, are signs that tell of the “Strife in Civil War Missouri,” a little-known story. In the burial grounds, small markers show cell phone tour sites. Recordings for the cell phone tours will be taped. Along the Heritage Trail, a series of ten signs, 2’X3’, describe the major happenings during Civil War days in Western Missouri. Monies from the FFNHA paid for graphic design and art on the signs along the Heritage Trail; and a year of the cell phone provider’s annual fee plus cost of necessary signage for the cell phone “stops” along the trail. Grant Request: $5,000.00 Mount Mora Cemetery Preservation & Restoration Association: Mount Mora Cemetery, established in 1851, is one of the oldest operating cemeteries in Saint Joseph, MO. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The cemetery is the final resting place for many local, state, and national people with historic ties to the Great Westward Movement and the Border and Civil Wars. The 15-minute Mount Mora Cemetery Video created for Mount Mora Cemetery introduces visitors to the cemetery and its importance as a historical site, and provides brief biographies on several people buried there; people who made an impact on Saint Joseph, Northwest Missouri, and FFNHA, with a heavy emphasis on the FFNHA theme of Shaping the Frontier, from the 1840s to 1900. This period also includes the Missouri-Kansas Border War, another FFNHA theme. Grant Request: $5,000.00 Royal Valley Middle School: In 2002 the Kansas Legislature passed House Bill 2614, which calls for the placing of a 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry Mural in the Kansas State House. The students of Royal Valley Middle School, as part of their continuing effort to preserve local and state history, researched and developed the concept for this mural, following guidelines set out by the Kansas Capitol Preservation Committee. The project includes four concept panels for presentation and promotion of the mural. The Capitol Preservation Committee’s reviewed the project. In the final phase, the mural could be painted in the Kansas State Capitol Visitor Center. state. Grant Request: $1,489.11 Vernon County Historical Society: To honor the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Vernon County Historical Society created New Exhibits, by renovating its current exhibits regarding the Missouri/Kansas Border War and Civil War Periods. The rejuvenated exhibits incorporate text, artifacts, images, and technology to create a multi-faceted and dynamic experience for a diverse audience. Modern interpretive panels replaced older exhibits and included modern technology. While creating the new panels, project staff used suggestions outlined in the 2010 FFNHA Peer Location Review Report. The new exhibits engage the public by asking and answering common questions about the Border War. Grant Request: $4,482.50 Westport Historical Society: Restoration of the second floor of the 1870 addition to the 1855 Harris-Kearney House Museum included two exhibit rooms: a small exhibit gallery and a large exhibit gallery. Both rooms display national and local exhibits as well as traveling exhibits from FFNHA partners and other groups with stories related to the struggles for freedom in 19th century Missouri and the United States. A third room, the bedroom of Hattie Dresdon Kearney, was restored and her story of slave to freed slave to family member is told. With the restoration of these rooms, the 1855 Harris- Kearney House can host many, varied exhibits and is the only museum in the area to interpret the issues of slavery, before, during and after the American Civil War. Grant funds covered the reinterpretation of these rooms. Two bathrooms and some interior walls were demolished. Wood floors and brick walls were refurbished. Room were painted. Door and window molding was replaced. Exhibit lighting, display cases, and audio-visual equipment was installed. Period correct bedroom furniture and accessories for Hattie’s room were purchased. Grant Request: $5,000 August 2012 Historical Preservation Partnership of Lyndon, Inc. (HPPL): The Wells P. Bailey House dates to at least 1870, and is located in the Lyndon City Park. In the mid-1800s, a Sac & Fox Indian reservation covered most of Osage County, and the house originally set at the site of a Fox village. Once thought to have been built by the U.S. Government for the Indians, recent architectural studies and restoration efforts suggest that the house was built by Bailey, a white settler, using logs obtained from the deserted Indian houses. HPPL developed a website and interpretive video to tell the story of the Bailey House. The first phase of restoration for the Bailey House was completed in fall 2012, and included the overall stabilization of the structure. While the grounds are always open to the public, personnel is frequently not available to open the house to visitors, except by appointment. A number of people do stop to visit the house each month. To provide information and interpret the Bailey House, HPPL developed a website and a short video to be viewed on the website or downloaded remotely by way of a QR Code. Grant Request: $4,949.80 Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Farm Historic Site: This grant will fund research, design, fabrication and installation of a five-panel exhibit within the foyer of the original farmhouse, built by the Mahaffie family of Olathe in 1865. The five panels will explore a central theme of Changes; Changes for the Mahaffies family, changes structurally to the farmhouse, and changes in the farm (Freedom’s Frontier theme: Shaping the Frontier) as well as changes within the community (Freedom’s Frontier theme: Missouri/Kansas Border Wars). Unlike the general orientation exhibit in the Mahaffie Heritage Center (Visitor Center) this exhibit specifically presents the changes the Mahaffie family endured while they lived in Olathe.