OAH Adopts Resolution on NHPRC

The following resolution has been approved by the OAH Executive Board. It was also approved at the AHA Business Meeting and subsequently adopted 5 January 1997 by the AHA Council.

Whereas, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) since its founding in 1934 as NHPC (National Historical Publications Committee) has had a mandate to foster a national program of publishing historical documentary editions; and Whereas, Congress in 1974 expanded the Commission's mandate to support the collection and preservation of nationally significant records; and

Whereas, historical documentary editions provide the American people with a lasting legacy and physical and intellectual access to a broad range of its fundamental historical documents; and

Whereas, the Commission members of the NHPRC voted at its November 1996 meeting by a narrow majority to adopt a strategic plan that places no historical documentary editions projects or nationally significant records projects in its first level of funding priorities.

Therefore, the Executive Board of the OAH asks the Executive Director of the NHPRC to provide time at a future Commission meeting to reconsider the strategic plan, thus giving to constituent groups an opportunity to examine the issues its adoption raises, and to comment to the Commission on their findings at that meeting.