April 4, 1996

To: James Herbert, Director
Division of Education and Research
National Endowment for the Humanities
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20506

From: Edward C. Papenfuse, State Archivist & Commissioner of Land Patents
Maryland State Archives
350 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis, MD 21401

(410) 260-6400
fax: (410) 974-3895
e-mail: archives@mdarchives.state.md.us
web site: www.mdarchives.state.md.us

The Maryland State Archives and the Anne Arundel County Public Schools are pleased to present the Endowment with a grant proposal which we believe will fundamentally alter how teachers teach and students learn about the past and make use of that knowledge to prepare for the future. Using primary source materials and the most recent scholarship, teams of teachers and students will work in an electronic classroom that takes full advantage of technology to organize and present information. The program's goals go beyond traditional objectives of improving teachers' scholarship and promoting content knowledge and analytical skills among their students. This project has the potential to serve as a model for a nation-wide dialogue leading to the creation of teams of archivists, historians, teachers, media specialists, computer technicians, and students. Together, they will master the necessary humanistic philosophies, computer skills, and content knowledge to face the challenges of citizenship in a technologically advanced society.

In a dialogue with Professor James O'Donnell, Endowment Chairman Sheldon Hackney eloquently addressed the issues raised by the computer revolution in the university classroom. We believe that the enclosed joint application of the Anne Arundel County Schools and the Maryland State Archives addresses a similar revolution taking place in secondary and elementary education.

With Dr. Mercer Neale, headmaster of the Boys' Latin School in Baltimore, I have had the privilege of developing some new approaches to the use of archival material in the classroom. The Documents for the Classroom series contains original documents and educational materials available from the Maryland State Archives and other repositories which help teachers to explore themes in American history by studying local events. The subject matter of the packets encourages interdisciplinary and multicultural approaches to understanding history. This program has caught the interest and the enthusiasm of a broad range of educators, many of whom have contributed to the preparation of our application, and who will, in turn, benefit greatly from the support of the Endowment for this grant proposal.

We appreciate the helpful suggestions made in the review of our previous application and by Dr. Edwards with regard to this application. We hope we have reflected the suggested changes adequately.

Even in this time of declining public funding, the National Endowment for the Humanities still has a great impact on the course of scholarship, teaching, and the intellectual future of our country. Only through federal support can cooperative programs like the one proposed here begin to reshape education. We hope that this project can contribute to the Endowment's goals of promoting the application of humanistic studies to a better understanding of the past, ourselves, and to the improvement of our nation's future.

Access to the Proposal on CD-ROM

The application format is somewhat different than what is required by your guidelines in that we are submitting a portion of it traditionally on paper and all of it on a CD where samples of the educational materials are available through hyperlinks. The CD itself is an innovation, in that it makes use of existing browser capabilities to view the files. This means that anyone with a multimedia PC and web browser such as Netscape installed can view the application including the sample document packets. The CD will work in both Windows 3.xx and Windows 95 environments. Internet connectivity allows access to all aspects of this application.

In order to fully utilize the packets, it may be necessary to download software packages available as shareware from the Internet (see the "readme.txt" instructions in the root directory of this CD). If you are reading the paper copy of my letter to you, you will need to insert the enclosed CD in the CDROM drive and access Herbert.htm in the root directory as a local file using your Netscape browser. If you are already reading this in your browser, you need to click here to begin your journey through the application and the supporting materials.

A distinct advantage of using the HTML format is that it allows the presentation of much more material than paper versions and is much more portable. If you would like your reviewers to have copies to supplement their paper copies, we would be more than happy to provide them.

With regard to the archival materials presented here, this CD is but a static picture, a slice-in-time, of an on-line service of the Maryland State Archives featuring document packets for use in the classroom. The packets contained on this CD are a sample of a larger program for successfully teaching people at all levels of education and interest how to use the technology of the information highway.

If you should have any questions about the use of this CD, please call me or R.J. Rockefeller at (410) 974-3867. We appreciate the Endowment's consideration of this proposal and look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

Edward C. Papenfuse
State Archivist and
Commissioner of Land Patents

enclosures