The UW-Madison Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and the Mills Music Library received a $230,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, according to a university press release, which will be used to digitize a historic collection of music and sound recordings.
The recordings provide an auditory history of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, and the cultural traditions captured on them are currently only available on discs and cassettes that are deteriorating or obsolete, according to the release.
Jeanette Casey, head of the Mills Music Library, said she is grateful that the grant will provide greater access to the recordings.
“We’re thrilled the NEH recognized the importance of this fabulous and historic collection,” Casey said in the release. “These recordings are like books nobody can read, and now we can open them up to the world.”
Grant partners, including the UW Digital Collections Center and Wisconsin Teachers of Local Culture, will assist with language, cultural and technical knowledge to create the digital collection, which will eventually be available online.
The National Endowment for the Humanities formed in 1965 after the federal government indicated a need for an agency to preserve America’s rich cultural history and traditions, according to the release, and to support work in the humanities field.
NEH Chairman William D. Adams announced the grant recipients, noting their contributions to American heritage.
“We are proud to announce this latest group of grantees who, through their projects and research, will bring valuable lessons of history and culture to Americans,” Adams said in the release.
