Modern Endangered Archives Program
Grant recipient The University of California, Los Angeles
Total awarded $18,500,000
Years 2018-2031
Funding area Recording cultural heritage
Priority Archives and manuscripts
Programme site https://meap.library.ucla.edu
The Modern Endangered Archives Programme, hosted by the University of California, Los Angeles, awards grants for the digitization of modern archives around the world that are in danger of destruction, neglect or physical deterioration.
Grant-funded projects cover printed materials, manuscripts, photographs, audio-visual recordings and born-digital materials from mid-20th century onwards. The programme covers collections still in private ownership as well as those held in public institutions. A parallel programme at the British Library supports projects focussed on earlier archival materials.
Digital records created by the projects are deposited in appropriate repositories in the country of origin. UCLA Library also makes a permanent digital copy of the records freely available online.
Since it started in 2018 the Modern Endangered Archives Programme has awarded 118 grants. Applications for the Modern Endangered Archives Programme open every September. Details are available from the programme’s website.
Project examples
Woman in a headscarf seated next to man in western clothing holding an infant, photographed in Mr. M.T. Ramakatane's City Centre Studio. Ramakatane Archive 7, 1968.
The Photographer Who Woke Up from the Dead: Mohlouoa T. Ramakatane
Mohlouoa T. Ramakatane (b.1937) is a highly renowned portrait photographer from Lesotho. The South African-based Photography Legacy Project digitized almost 3,000 prints and negatives taken by Ramakatane over his 50-year career. His work sheds light on Lesotho’s history and cultural memory, including studio portraits, photographs from across the country, and of the Lesotho Royal Family. The collection also contains evidence of his activist work in Lesotho and South Africa.
Negatives of a little boy singing and playing his guitar. From The Great Film of Uruguay: Carlos Alonso Collection Carlos Alonso collection, SODRE.
Regional Documentary Film in Uruguay: The Carlos Alonso Collection
The Carlos Alonso Collection, owned by the Archivo Nacional de la Imagen y la Palabra, consists of forty-five reels of nitrate film that record the countryside of Uruguay between 1920 and 1940 and documents a landscape lost to industrialization, as well as a local culture altered by modernization. Cine Casero and the Universidad Católica del Uruguay received a planning grant which resulted in an inventory of all of the films as well as a detailed technical assessment to prepare the reels for future digitization.
The Modern Endangered Archives Programme is one of our five culture grant programmes. Grant programmes are hosted by trusted partners. Our partners help us to determine where our support is most needed and distribute grants to individuals and organizations.
Top banner image: Workshop in Chiapas Mexico, 1998. Courtesy of Chiapas Media Project (CMP)/Promedios archive.