Grantee Spotlights
Stories of Impact: McDowell County Historical Society
December 2021
The McDowell County Historical Society works within its community to collect, preserve, and interpret genealogical, biographical, architectural, cultural, and historical matter pertaining to McDowell County residents. The society makes its valuable resources available to the public, creating exhibits and special events for educational and enjoyment purposes.
This summer, the McDowell County Historical Society received a NC Humanities American Rescue Plan Humanities Grant to help sustain their operations during the pandemic.
“Much of our local history is not written in the books and is still being discovered, some even changing [and] we feel we are a big part of this endeavor,” McDowell County Historical Society said. “Our community is growing with more people putting down roots here, and they are excited to learn about their new community. We are encouraged to know that we have help from North Carolina Humanities to continue with such connections as our ‘Geocaching for History’ and our annual ‘Historical Ghost Walks’. Both of these are able to be socially distanced and family friendly. As we have heard many times over, to move ahead into the future, we must learn from the past. We would like to thank North Carolina Humanities for their support of our historical organization.”
North Carolina Humanities awarded a total of $1,271,060 in American Rescue Plan Humanities Grants to 90 North Carolina cultural organizations in September 2021. Funding for North Carolina Humanities American Rescue Plan Humanities Grants was provided to North Carolina Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP), approved by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in March 2021. To see a list of all 90 grantees visit nchumanities.org.
Stories of Impact is a limited-time blog series that highlights various North Carolina Humanities American Rescue Plan Humanities grantees and their amazing work across the state.