Small Grants to Libraries Lincoln The Constitution and the Civil War | Apply Online

Opportunity Summary:

Small Grants to Libraries: Lincoln The Constitution and the Civil War is a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) discretionary grant opportunity designed to help libraries host a high-quality humanities exhibition and related public programming. The project is a partnership among NEH, the National Constitution Center (NCC), and the American Library Association (ALA). It takes an existing NCC interactive exhibition and reformats it into a traveling version specifically suited for library spaces. While NEH provides a major grant to the NCC to fund the overall traveling exhibition and tour, this particular opportunity provides smaller, direct awards to local hosts so they can cover on-the-ground costs of presenting the exhibit and engaging their communities through events and educational activities.

Successful applicants receive up to $2,500 from NEH to support exhibition-related expenses and accompanying programs. The grant does not require cost sharing or a match, which makes it more accessible for smaller libraries and community organizations that may not have extra funds available. The funding activity falls under humanities public programs (CFDA 45.164, Promotion of the Humanities: Public Programs). The opportunity was posted on November 3, 2008, with an application deadline of January 30, 2009 (Funding Opportunity Number 20090130-LL). The award ceiling is $2,500 and the award floor is listed as $0, reflecting that awards are competitive and may vary up to the maximum amount.

Eligibility is broad for public-serving organizations that commonly operate libraries or partner with them. Eligible applicants include state governments, city or township governments, special district governments, federally recognized Native American tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations with IRS 501(c)(3) status (excluding institutions of higher education). In practical terms, this means public library systems and many nonprofit library friends groups, library foundations, and similar community-based organizations could potentially apply, as long as they meet the eligibility requirements and are positioned to host the traveling exhibition and run public programming around it.

The exhibition itself is framed as part of NEH's We the People initiative, which supports programs that deepen public understanding of major themes and turning points in US history and culture, with special attention to the principles and ideas that shape American civic life. Lincoln The Constitution and the Civil War uses the US Constitution as the central thread to explore Abraham Lincoln's leadership during the Civil War and the constitutional questions the conflict forced the nation to confront. Rather than treating Lincoln only as a heroic symbol, the exhibition intentionally presents a more complicated and historically grounded portrait, acknowledging that Lincoln was criticized in his own time and remains debated today.

Organized thematically, the exhibition focuses on three intertwined crises: secession, slavery, and wartime civil liberties. It highlights how Lincoln used constitutional arguments and presidential authority to respond to the breakup of the Union, the moral and political battle over slavery, and the pressures that war placed on individual rights. A key goal is to leave visitors with a clearer understanding of the Civil War as the nation's most serious constitutional crisis, and to show Lincoln as a president wrestling with competing duties and ideals rather than offering simplistic answers.

A major feature of the exhibit is its interactive, question-driven approach. Visitors are prompted to think through historical dilemmas using real examples and primary source material. For instance, in the section on civil liberties, visitors encounter cases of people arrested during the war and are invited to decide whether those arrests were justified in the name of national security or whether detainees should have been released. This structure is meant to encourage active learning and discussion, not passive viewing, and it is designed to connect nineteenth-century debates to contemporary questions about liberty, equality, security, and democratic governance.

The exhibition also leans heavily on Lincoln's own words and on historically significant documents and artifacts (through reproductions) to make the material vivid and credible for general audiences. Visitors see reproductions of documents signed by Lincoln such as the Emancipation Proclamation, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Order to Blockade the Southern Ports, emphasizing how policy, law, and constitutional interpretation shaped wartime actions. Visual reproductions of iconic personal objects, such as Lincoln's top hat and the pen used to sign the Emancipation Proclamation, help recreate the material world of the era. The concluding portion prominently features the Gettysburg Address in a graphic presentation intended to link past and present and underscore the continuing relevance of Lincoln's language and ideas. The exhibit ultimately asks visitors to reflect on whether the United States has lived up to the ideals Lincoln fought for, including equality, freedom, and democracy, and it invites them to share their own perspectives.

The tour schedule noted in the announcement indicates the exhibition would travel to libraries from mid-2009 through 2011, meaning the small grants were aimed at helping individual host sites present the exhibition during that touring window and build strong local programming around it. For applicants seeking more details, the opportunity included an NEH information page (neh.gov/grants/guidelines/SGLLincoln.html) and provided contact information for NEH's Division of Public Programs for assistance with accessing the full announcement or resolving application questions.

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