State Historical Records Advisory Board

Why Apply for a SHRAB Grant?

Thanks to the Hot Springs Museum and Cultural Center, recipient of back-to-back SHRAB awards in 2020 and 2021 for their thoughts on some of the unexpected benefits of their grant:

The Hot Springs County Museum received a grant two years ago from SHRAB for a special project. (It had been many, many years since the museum had applied for a grant). At the time the SHRAB grant was approved, it was mentioned that our project would be a good candidate for the DPLA [Digital Public Library of America].

We pursued the suggestion and now we are members of DPLA, and not only do they have the first SHRAB project, and will have our project that was just approved by SHRAB, but they are interested in our complete collection of photographs. Now, we will be able to add photos to DPLA as our collection is updated.

None of this would have been possible had it not been for that first SHRAB grant. It has opened up new opportunities for us, and we’ve applied for other grants. We recently received a $50,000 grant for a school immersion program in our rural one-room schoolhouse, where 3rd and 4th graders will experience what it was like to attend school in the 1920s, complete with costumes, character cards, and the curriculum that was used in Wyoming during that time period.

I hope more small museums will take advantage of a SHRAB grant; it may open a whole new world for them, too.