Giannoulias Awards Grants to Preserve Illinois’ History for Future Generations
Giannoulias Awards Grants to Preserve Illinois’ History for Future Generations
Funds Support Six Projects to Digitize, Preserve and Expand Access to Historical Records
The Illinois State Historical Records Advisory Board (ISHRAB), overseen by Illinois Secretary of State and State Archivist Alexi Giannoulias, has awarded grants to six historical records repositories and organizations to preserve, digitize and expand public access to archival materials documenting Illinois history and culture.
The grants support projects that range from digitizing aging film and audio collections to preserving archaeological data and making the history of Illinois’ deaf and Filipino American communities more accessible to the public.
“Every community has a story worth preserving, and these grants help make sure those stories are not lost to time,” Giannoulias said. “From the history of Cahokia to the experiences of Illinois’ deaf and Filipino American communities, these projects are preserving important pieces of our shared history while making them more accessible to researchers, students and the public.”
Funding for the grants was provided through a State Board Programming Grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Since 2010, ISHRAB has awarded grants to archives and cultural institutions across Illinois to help preserve and provide access to historically significant records.
The following organizations received grants for their historical records projects during the 2026 grant cycle:
Illinois Heartland Library System
Creating Mobile Memory Lab Kits and Instructions for Use by IHLS Member Libraries
• $5,000 to create portable digitization kits that can be distributed to member libraries through the system’s established delivery network. The project will also provide centralized metadata cataloging services to make digitized materials more discoverable and accessible to the public.
Dominican Province of St. Albert the Great
Media Preservation and Digitization
• $1,900 to digitize 1,000 feet of 8mm film, 9,000 feet of 16mm film, three U-matic reels and 15 hours of audio recordings from Dominican Central Productions, a studio that produced professional films from 1950 to 1990 documenting the province’s communities, summer camp in Michigan, seminary in Dubuque and foreign missions in Nigeria and Bolivia.
Filipino American Historical Society of Chicago
FAHSC Collections Access & Preservation: Cataloging + Rehousing for Public Discovery
• $4,600 to stabilize and improve access to priority portions of the Estrella Alamar Collection, a significant archive documenting Filipino American life in Illinois from 1920 to the present.
Swoboda Deaf Center (Chicago Area Deaf Center Foundation)
Digitizing and Exhibiting Chicago Deaf Community History for the Swoboda Deaf Museum and Illinois Digital Archives
• $5,000 to professionally process and digitize eight bankers’ boxes of Illinois deaf history materials, creating a permanent museum exhibit and providing free statewide online access to the collection.
The Urbana Free Library
Initial Digitization of Significant Materials in the Chanute Air Force Base A/V Collection
• $5,000 to begin digitizing audiovisual materials from the Chanute Air Force Base Collection, helping preserve aging tapes and expand access to records documenting an important part of local and national history.
Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, Illinois State Archaeological Survey
The Cahokia Data Project
• $5,000 to gather, organize and digitize archaeological spatial data from past excavations at Cahokia, including scanning excavation maps and georeferencing them using modern GIS software. The project will support new research, inform preservation strategies and improve public interpretation while providing information to Descendant Tribal Nations to support preservation and compliance decisions.
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