“The Portal is a free and public online gateway to primary source materials about Texas, and thanks to the support from our donors and the National Endowment for the Humanities, we can ensure this resource will be accessible for generations to come.”
The Portal to Texas History at the University of North Texas has successfully raised the funding to receive a $500,000 challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The portal, which has more than 1.5 million historical materials, needed to raise $1.5 million in the past four years to receive the grant. This fall, fundraising reached $2.3 million. The funding benefits the Cathy Nelson Hartman Portal to Texas History Endowment, which funds technology and support for the collection, research fellowships, and educational initiatives.
In fall 2012, UNT Libraries established the Cathy Nelson Hartman Portal to Texas History Endowment with a lead gift from Cathy Nelson Hartman, the founder of the portal. The endowment enables UNT to extend the impact of the portal by creating a permanent, sustainable source of income. Funds derived from this endowment serve as a catalyst for enhancing future technology development, acquisition and support; for adding collections and content; and for educational, scholarly, and research initiatives.
“I’m proud of the amazing team bringing Texas history to the world,” said Dean of Libraries Diane Bruxvoort. “The Portal is a free and public online gateway to primary source materials about Texas, and thanks to the support from our donors and the National Endowment for the Humanities, we can ensure this resource will be accessible for generations to come.”
The challenge grant will be transformative for the UNT University Libraries and for the 397 collaborative partners who extend their reach via the portal. For years, many treasures of Texas history have been tucked into small, out-of-the-way libraries and museums—some in remote areas of the state—where access is limited to those historians who could travel to view these documents, and those schoolchildren and teachers who lived nearby. The Portal to Texas History now provides an opportunity to research the state's historical and cultural heritage online, so the challenge grant also will support the efforts of the scholars, digital humanists, educators, and students who use and cite the data provided by the portal.
Go here to learn more about the National Endowment for the Humanities challenge grant.
