6 local projects just won National Endowment for the Humanities grants

Last week, the Chemical Heritage Foundation got $100,000 to make a video game about alchemy.

Yes, alchemy.

“Age of Alchemy: The Goldsmith’s Daughter,” developed with partners Drexel University and Gossamer Games, will be an “immersive game set in 17th century London that explores the intersection of science, culture, and history.”

The grant comes by way of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) Division of Public Programs. Total, NEH granted out $12.8 million to 253 humanities projects around the U.S., including $366,644 to nine projects and two fellows in Pennsylvania.

These local orgs made the cut:

• Digitizing for LGBT Communities in the Philadelphia Area Project by Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Philadelphia — “Two digitization days and three public programs focusing on groups within the LGBT community of Philadelphia that are underrepresented in the center’s John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives” (Philadelphia, $11,963)
• Rehousing and Improved Environmental Monitoring of the Stephen Girard Archive by Girard College — “The purchase of preservation supplies to rehouse the papers of Stephen Girard (1750-1831), a prominent financier and philanthropist in the Early American Republic, along with environmental monitoring equipment for the college’s archival storage areas. The collection, housed in 800 boxes, includes 36,000 letters sent by individuals throughout the world to Girard, who at his time of death was the nation’s wealthiest person” (Philadelphia, $5,978)
• Collections Assessment of the Archives of St. Peter’s Church by Historic St. Peter’s Church Preservation Corporation — “A preservation assessment and the purchase of archival supplies to rehouse 100 linear feet of materials related to the history of St. Peter’s Church from 1761 to the present” (Philadelphia, $6,000)
• DH from an Indigenous Perspective: Strengthening Partnerships between Indigenous Communities, Scholars, Museums, and Archives by Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania — “The study of how four Indigenous communities, with whom this team collaborated on a Digital Humanities Start-Up Grant to digitally repatriate archival materials, have used those materials in culture and language revitalization efforts” (Philadelphia, $74,622)
• Rehousing of Hidden Library Collections by West Chester Chester County Historical Society — “The purchase of archival storage supplies for five collections of books, manuscripts, periodicals, ephemera, and media resources documenting Chester County, Pennsylvania” (West Chester, $5,606)

As did these fellows from local universities:

• The Exodus of German Culture to Turkey (1933–1945), Azade Seyhan — “A book-length analysis on academic exiles from Hitler’s Germany and the Turkish higher educational institutions in which they took refuge” (Bryn Mawr College, $25,200)
• Slouch: The Hidden History of America’s Poor Posture Epidemic, Beth Linker — “Research and writing of a book on the rise and fall of the American poor posture epidemic in the 20th century and its impact on science, medicine, government, and industry” (University of Pennsylvania, $50,400)