FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 18, 2023

University of Houston-Clear Lake Libraries

Media Contact: Katherine Adams, 281-283-2048; Email: AdamsKat@UHCL.edu

Houston, TX: The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) Archives and Special Collections of the Alfred R. Neumann Library with a $9,265 grant as part of its 2023-2024 grant cycle awards for the Preservation Assistance Grants for Smaller Institutions. This is the first NEH grant that the University of Houston-Clear Lake has ever received. The grant will support the hiring of respected preservation consultant Rebecca Elder of Rebecca Elder Cultural Heritage Preservation, to conduct the archives’ first general preservation assessment of its current archival holdings and storage spaces. The assessment will provide the Archives with the information it needs to develop responsible, sustainable long-term planning for improved preservation of its unique historical collections.

“The UHCL Archives is thankful to NEH for being selected as one of 61 Preservation Assistance grantees in the United States,” says Matthew Peek, associate director of the Archives. Additionally, the Archives was selected to receive part of the grant’s funding through a special NEH initiative called American Tapestry: Weaving Together Past, Present, and Future, an initiative “that will help emphasize the role of the humanities in tackling contemporary social challenges: strengthening our democracy, advancing equity for all, and addressing our changing climate.” This honor shows the national and local cultural significance of the UHCL Archives’ historical collections, which the institution is dedicated to making widely accessible for the university and the general public for future generations.

The UHCL Archives and Special Collections houses the university’s institutional archives, local history in the Clear Lake Area Collection, the Human Space Flight Collection, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center History Collection on loan for access. The Archives’ world-class Human Space Flight Collection features the personal work papers of former NASA Johnson Space Center personnel, including engineers, who helped plan some of the greatest feats of space exploration.

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Founded in 1989, the University of Houston-Clear Lake Archives and Special Collections’ mission is to collect, preserve, and make publicly accessible original historical archival materials for use by its constituents for research and preservation of community history. You can learn more about the Archives’ collections at https://tinyurl.com/3nuntv2v.

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency created in 1965. It is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the United States.