Fort Ticonderoga, a major cultural destination, museum, and National Historic Landmark located in New York’s 6-million-acre Adirondack Park has been awarded three individual prestigious grants totaling nearly $500,000.
The grants awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services; the National Endowment for the Humanities: Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan; and the American Battlefield Protection Program will provide vital funding to enhance on-site and digital accessibility,” said Beth L Hill, Fort Ticonderoga President and CEO. “All three grant-funded projects will increase access and awareness of our museum’s singular collections, significantly expand educational reach, invest in our historic resources, landscape and collections, and engage new partners in the study and understanding of the past and its meaning to us today.”
“The history of Fort Ticonderoga is of significant importance to the North Country and to our nation,” said Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. “These taxpayer dollars will now be returned to our district to further tell the story of Fort Ticonderoga’s integral role in the landscape of American history.”
“Fort Ticonderoga is ushering in a new era of engagement by collaborating with various stakeholders and partners,” said Miranda Peters, Fort Ticonderoga Vice President of Collections and Digital Production. “These projects will improve our ability to more fully understand our collections and tell Ticonderoga’s unique layers of history in a more accessible and inclusive way.”
With generous thanks to The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Fort Ticonderoga Museum will build and strengthen relationships with the indigenous communities whose aboriginal land includes Fort Ticonderoga. These collaborations will develop the documentation necessary for the repatriation of indigenous ancestors and their associated belongings that fall under the National Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act and additionally lead to the decolonization of collections management practices.
This project was made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MA-249522-OMS-21].
With generous thanks to the National Endowment for the Humanities: Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan, Fort Ticonderoga museum staff will digitize and make accessible never-before-seen archival records of a Revolutionary War fort in New York. Additionally, staff will explore collaborations with indigenous communities to develop a public program and digital exhibition using the archives that explore the war and its impact in new ways.
The Opening the Vault: Pathways of Accessibility to Ticonderoga’s Hidden Collections award is made possible, in part, by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
With generous thanks to the National Park Service: American Battlefield Protection Program Battlefield Interpretation Grant, Fort Ticonderoga will work with partners to improve on-site and virtual interpretation of the battlefield that meets the needs of learners of all abilities. The final project report will serve as a road map for future implementation of interpretative and physical development of the battlefield.
This project is made possible, in part, by the National Park Service: American Battlefield Protection Program Battlefield Interpretation Grant.
About Fort Ticonderoga:
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As a multi-day destination and the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts.