Approved by AHA Council, January 5, 1997

WHEREAS, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) since its founding in 1934 has had a mandate to foster a national program of publishing historical documentary editions; and

WHEREAS, Congress in 1974 expanded the commission’s mandate to support the collection and preservation of nationally significant records; and

WHEREAS, historical documentary editions provide the American people with a lasting legacy and physical and intellectual access to a broad range of its fundamental historical documents; and

WHEREAS, the commission members of the NHPRC voted at their November 1996 meeting by a narrow margin to adopt a strategic plan that places no historical documentary edition projects or nationally significant records projects in its first level of funding priorities,

THEREFORE, the Council of the American Historical Association asks the executive director of the NHRPC to provide time at a future commission meeting to reconsider the strategic plan, thus giving to constituent groups an opportunity to examine the issues its adoption raises, and to comment to the commission on their funding at that meeting.