NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE (Vol. 11, #43; 10 NOVEMBER 2005)
by Bruce Craig (editor) with Nathaniel Kulyk NATIONAL COALITION FOR HISTORY (NCH) Website at http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~nch/
1. THOUSANDS OF IRAQI RELICS STILL MISSING; UNIMPEDED PILFERING OF
ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES CONTINUES
2. HISTORIANS AND HISTORY PATRONS AMONG THIS YEAR’S HUMANITIES AWARD WINNERS
3. BILL INTRODUCED TO DESIGNATE CLINTON HOME AS A NATIONAL PARK UNIT
4. NEH TO ESTABLISH NEW GRANT APPLICATION PROCEDURE
5. MICROSOFT TO DIGITIZE 100,000 BOOKS
6. PASSING OF HISTORIAN GORDON CRAIG
7. BITS AND BYTES: Restore America Grants
8. ARTICLES OF INTEREST: “Every State Left Behind” (New York Times)
1. THOUSANDS OF IRAQI RELICS STILL MISSING; UNIMPEDED PILFERING OF ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES CONTINUES Thousands of years ago, the land now known as Iraq was the "birthplace of civilization," -- it is where ancient peoples left behind a cultural heritage that spans thousands of years. The patriarch Abraham lived in this land as did Imam Ali, the founder of Shiite Islam, who was martyred there. But in March 2003, when U.S. forces entered Baghdad, no effort was made to protect Iraqi cultural heritage. Mobs broke into the Iraqi National Museum and stole everything they could find; unprotected archeological sites were ravaged.
Two and a half years have now passed since looters raided Iraq's National Museum, and police authorities from around the world are still searching for thousands of stolen historical items, including some of the most famous artifacts that document world history and civilization. Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, who was charged by American military officials to head the recovery effort, reports that out of approximately 14,000 list items known to be missing, only 5,500 have been recovered.
The central problem is that in spite of isolated efforts to locate missing items by the American military occupation force, there is no systematic effort to retrieve artifacts. It is a matter of priorities. And because of the ongoing insurgency, neither U.S. nor Iraqi forces are prepared to use manpower to guard sites where looting of archeological sites has and continues to occur. Now we learn that Colonel Bogdanos who headed the meager American recovery effort has departed Iraq, thus leaving a vacuum in the American military’s efforts to retrieve missing artifacts.
Law enforcement organizations around the world also note the lack of a coordinated and systematic approach by the military occupiers to track down lost antiquities. To a large extent military authorities are relying on the goodwill of thieves to return stolen items. They are also counting on the coalition military forces, who periodically stumble into and retrieve objects, to turn in what they find. Ad hoc partnerships that were established early on with museum and law enforcement organizations, including the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, the FBI, Interpol, and experts at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, are about all that remains in the Bush administration’s “systematic effort” to bring the looters to account.
While there is some speculation that some of the lower-end, lesser quality artifacts are being offered for sale over the Internet, there is little evidence to support the claim as there has been no serious upsurge in public sales of Iraqi antiquities, either in the United States or in Britain. Some experts believe that the most important artifacts have been warehoused and are hidden away for safekeeping and future sales. Others speculate that just given the peculiarities of the antiquities market, it may take a few years for goods to migrate to the better shops in Europe. Still others believe the most famous missing pieces will never again be handled in public but rather will be sold through under-the-table private sales.
One of Bogdanos's efforts was the creation of a "top 40" list of the most famous pieces stolen from the National Museum. To date, 15 of the items have been recovered, including the Sumerian vase of Warka and an Assyrian wheeled firebox made of bronze. The 25 remaining missing items include Bahrani's Sumerians statue, a life-size head of the Goddess of Victory from Hatra, made of copper, and the gold and ivory carved plaque of a lioness attacking a Nubian. These are museum objects that are very well known and would never be touched by a reputable art dealer or gallery. In addition to the top 40 list, a secondary list of some 8,000 other missing objects has been assembled. Most of these are smaller items, believed to be the most saleable, are easy to hide and transport.
Some antiquities dealers speculate that whatever low-to mid-end market exists for Iraqi artifacts may be drying up, as reputable dealers are often asked to prove that an item is not stolen. Sanctions that have been imposed by the United States and Britain also have forced thieves to make a cost-benefit calculation causing some to conclude that the risk is not worth trying to sell low-end items on the market at this time. It is also too dangerous for serious collectors to buy high-end items because if their purchase of stolen items becomes known, they risk having the item taken from them without any compensation. The net effect is that thieves are probably just biding their time, waiting for a better day to sell their stolen wares.
2. HISTORIANS AND HISTORY PATRONS AMONG THIS YEAR’S HUMANITIES AWARD WINNERS On 10 November 2005, President George W. Bush awarded the 2005 National Humanities Medal to eleven distinguished Americans and one scholarly research project for their contributions to the humanities. At a private White House ceremony, the President presented National Humanities Medals to Walter Berns, Matthew Bogdanos, Eva Brann, John Lewis Gaddis, Richard Gilder, Mary Ann Glendon, Leigh Keno, Leslie Keno, Alan Charles Kors, Lewis Lehrman, Judith Martin, and the Papers of George Washington Project at the University of Virginia. The National Humanities Medal honors individuals and organizations whose work has deepened the nation's understanding of the humanities, broadened citizens' engagement with the humanities, or helped preserve and expand America's access to important humanities resources.
Of the recipients, five are scholars (including two historians) and several others are history enthusiasts and patrons. John Lewis Gaddis is the Robert A. Lovett Professor of History and Political Science at Yale University. Gaddis, considered the dean of Cold War historians, recently attracted the attention of the Bush administration with his 2004 book entitled, "Surprise, Security, and the American Experience” in which he argues that the doctrine of “preemption” has a long history in the American military tradition.
Historian Alan Charles Kors has been teaching European intellectual history since 1968 at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is professor of history and holds the George H. Walker Endowed Term Chair. He has published extensively on the conceptual revolutions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and was recently editor-in-chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, an international project published in four volumes in 2002.
Richard Gilder and Lewis Lehrman are benefactors of historical organizations and are the co-founders and co-chairs of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History that promotes the study of American History.
Antiques aficionados and popularizers Leigh and Leslie Keno who produce the popular public television program “Find!” also were honored. The former is president of Leigh Keno American Antiques, a gallery in Manhattan dealing in fine eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century American furniture and decorative arts. His brother, Leslie Keno is senior vice president, senior specialist, and director of American furniture and decorative arts at Sotheby's in New York.
In addition to individuals, The Papers of George Washington project was also honored. The project was established in 1969 at the University of Virginia, under the joint auspices of the university and the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, to publish a complete edition of Washington's correspondence. Letters written to Washington, as well as letters and documents written by him, will eventually be published in the complete edition that will consist of approximately 90 volumes. Fifty-two volumes are now finished. The new edition is supported financially by grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, and the University of Virginia.
Brief biographies of the 11 medalists and a description of the Papers of George Washington Project are available on the NEH Web site at this URL: http://www.neh.gov/news/archive/20051108.html
3. BILL INTRODUCED TO DESIGNATE CLINTON HOME AS A NATIONAL PARK UNIT On 1 November 2005, Representative Mike Ross (D-AR) introduced legislation (H.R. 4192) that would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to designate the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home, located at 117 South Hervey Street, in Hope, Arkansas, as a National Historic Site and a unit of the National Park Service. The legislation has been referred to the House Subcommittee on National Parks for further review. To date, no similar or companion legislation has been introduced in the Senate.
The Clinton Birthplace Foundation was formed several years ago and successfully renovated the home of the former president, turning it into a museum and visitors center. Virginia Kelley, the president's late mother, was directly involved in the project by providing valuable details on the restoration of the house to its 1946 appearance. The wood frame house is a two and one-half story American Foursquare design built in 1917, but has not been owned by the Clinton family for the past 30 years. In that time, the house unfortunately underwent major fire, water, and structural damage. Today, the site is a successful tourist attraction, brining in guests from around the world. With the steps now being taken to include the site as part of the National Park Service, many speculate that this will open the door to economic opportunity and additional tourism for southwestern Arkansas.
4. NEH TO ESTABLISH NEW GRANT APPLICATION PROCEDURE The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is establishing a new application policy that will be in place in 2006 for all institutional applicants. The National Coalition for History has learned that the NEH will soon be announcing that the agency will be are accepting all institutional grant applications exclusively via Grants.gov, the government-wide grants portal. Applicants will no longer have to send in multiple paper copies of applications.
The Grants.gov portal is designed to provide a simple, unified electronic storefront for interactions between grant applicants and the Federal agencies that manage grant funds. The grant community, including state, local and tribal governments, academia and research institutions, and not-for-profits, need only visit one website, Grants.gov, to access the annual grant funds available across the Federal government. Institutions can also sign up at the Grants.gov website to get automatic e-mail alerts about grant opportunities that are of interest to them.
Institutions applying for an NEH grant will need to submit their applications via Grants.gov. In order to submit applications via Grants.gov, institution must register with the website and create an institutional profile. Once registered, organizations can then apply for any government grant on the Grants.gov website. In most cases, a project director will not be the person who registers his or her institution with Grants.gov. Registration will need to be completed by an institution's grants administrator, sponsored research official, or authorizing official. If your organization has already registered, you may skip this step. If not, please use the NEH checklist to assist in guiding institutions through the registration process. NEH recommends that institutions complete registration at least two weeks before the application deadline, as it takes time for the registration to be processed. If you have problems registering with Grants.gov, call the Grants.gov help desk at 1-800-518-4726.
Once an organization is registered with Grants.gov, sending in an application is simplified. All NEH application guidelines for programs with deadlines in 2006 or beyond will contain complete, step-by-step instructions on how to apply via Grants.gov for that particular program. Guidelines are typically posted 90 days prior to an application deadline. However, the NEH is encourages grant applicants to register with Grants.gov now, even if an institution will not be applying until a future date.
Important links and information: Grants.Gov Registration Checklist: http://www.neh.gov/grants/grantsgov/grantsgovchecklist.html Grants.gov help desk: 1-800-518-4726 or e_mail support@grants.gov NEH Application Guidelines: http://www.neh.gov/grants/ Grants.Gov Main Site: http://www.grants.gov/
5. MICROSOFT TO DIGITIZE 100,000 BOOKS The Microsoft Corporation’s MSN Search division has reached an agreement with the British Library to scan 100,000 books from its vast collection and make them available for reading at no charge on the Internet. This agreement is the latest venture into a fiercely competitive battle among leading computer and Internet companies over digitizing books online.
Danielle Tiedt, who heads content for Microsoft's MSN Search unit thinks there is a market for consumers who are interested in reading selections from reference works, cookbooks, and books on travel. She emphasized that Microsoft would seek permission from publishers before scanning any books that are protected by copyright laws. With this move, she hopes that the company will avoid the legal problems that are currently being faced by Google, which is being sued by major publishing companies in an effort to stop unauthorized scanning. However, books which were published in the United States before 1923 are generally considered out-of-copyright and in the public domain.
In terms of generating a profit from this project, Microsoft intends to test business models that would include online advertising as well as the sharing of revenue with authors, publishers, and retailers from the sale of books. The scanning of the books from the British Library will cost approximately $2.5 million.
6. PASSING OF HISTORIAN GORDON CRAIG Gordon A. Craig, a respected professor at Stanford University and considered by many to be America's dean of German historians, died of a heart ailment on 30 October at the Sequoias nursing home in Portola Valley, California. He was 91 years old.
During his career, Craig wrote a dozen books on Germany and edited several more. He was also contributed regularly to the New York Review of Books. His work "The Germans," published in 1982, was nominated for the American Book Award in history. Gerry Graber, in reviewing the book for the Los Angeles Times, wrote that Craig's "special gift is to ask a question, select a theme from German history that is likely to supply the answer and lead the reader through labyrinthine erudition without producing a dry-as-dust result."
Craig was a native of Glasgow, Scotland. As a child, he moved to Canada and then the United States and received his bachelor's and master's degrees at Princeton University. He also studied at Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar. Shortly before World War II, he traveled widely in Germany and was troubled by what he considered abuses of culture and human rights. During the war, he worked for the State Department and served in the Marine Corps.
He taught briefly at Yale and then taught for 20 years at Princeton before he joined Sanford in 1961. He was the chair of the History Department from 1972 to 1975 and then again from 1978 to 1979 when he retired. He was president of the American Historical Association in 1981.
7. BITS AND BYTES Item # 1 – Restore America Grants: Support for Historic Preservation Restore America: A Salute to Preservation, a partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Home and Garden Television, provides grants to projects across America that highlight the work of preservation. Grants for 2006-2007 are intended to further the restoration or rehabilitation of historic structures for residential use. Properties generally should be at least 50 years old and be either currently in use as a residence or will be upon completion of the project. Although historic designation is not required, listing in the National Register, state register, local landmark designation or location in a designated historic district is preferred. The application deadline is 30 November 2005. For more information visit here. .
8. ARTICLES OF INTEREST One posting this week: In “Every State Left Behind” a research professor at New York University writes in an Op Ed in the New York Times (7 November 2005) that President Bush's education reform strategy of "50 states, 50 standards, 50 tests" does not work " and argues that Americans must recognize that we need national standards, national tests and a national curriculum." For the piece, visit here. .