Grants

Anchorage Origins Micro-Grant Program

Range of Awards: $100 - $1,000 per individual grant

Description
Cook Inlet Historical Society has established a micro grant program available for Anchorage School District educators to encourage or enhance the study of history in Anchorage Schools. The grants are funded through a generous donation from the estate of Loisann and John Reeder.

Details
Applications for grants are now open, with awards distributed on a rolling basis, subject to need and available funds. Grants may be used by Anchorage School District educators at any time before June 30 of the award year to facilitate place-based learning experiences that connect students with the diverse history, ethnography, and cultures of the Cook Inlet region. Individual grants ranging from $100 to $1,000 will be awarded.

Funds should be used to provide high quality instructional materials or experiences for the general education students at any Anchorage School District elementary, middle, or high school. Grant funding may be used to cover travel or other expenses incurred by an educator to create classroom resources that meet the above criteria.

To obtain a copy of the application form CIHS “Anchorage Origins” Micro-Grant Application click here.

Application Process
An application consists of items 1 through 6:

  1. Name of classroom material or experience provided by the grant.

  2. Grade level and subject where the resource or experience will be implemented

  3. Amount requested.

  4. Resource/experience description: describe how this product connects students to the diverse history of the Cook Inlet region.

  5. Place-based element: what specific local knowledge, site, archive, or community resource will students engage with? (e.g., Ship Creek, Eklutna Historical Park, Anchorage Museum library and archives (Atwood Resource Center).

  6. Budget breakdown: briefly itemize how the funds will be used.

Submitting the Application Form to the Cook Inlet Historical Society:

  1. Fill in the application form (CIHS “Anchorage Origins” Micro-Grant Application”) which includes item numbers 1 through 6.

  2. Scan the application form.

  3. Send the completed application form to the Cook Inlet Historical Society at cookinlethistoricalsociety@gmail.com.

Grant Criteria
Applications will be evaluated by a committee comprising the Cook Inlet Historical Society Board of Directors’ Executive Committee and any Board members they deem appropriate. Evaluations will be made according to the following criteria:

  1. Overall quality and clarity of proposal;

  2. Proposals that impact the greatest number of students; and

  3. Alignment of the place-based element with the mission of the Cook Inlet Historical Society.

Applications that are incomplete or that do not follow the instructions in the application procedures will be disqualified.

Deadlines

Application due by October 1, 2026.
Funds must be used by June 30, 2027.

An applicant selected for a grant will be notified in November.

Requirements
Successful applicants will be expected to provide a report to the Cook Inlet Historical Society’s Board of Directors at the end of the project, outlining how the funds were used and how they advanced students’ experiences with local knowledge. For questions, please contact the Cook Inlet Historical Society by email: cookinlethistoricalsociety@gmail.com.

Reeder-Davies Research Grants

The Cook Inlet Historical Society announces the resumption of the Reeder-Davies Research Grants for research in the history of Alaska and the Cook Inlet area. These annual grants are intended to fund new research and research in progress in the history of the Cook Inlet region and in Alaska history, in general.

Funding Amount: $400 to $1,000 per individual grant

Eligible Expenses

  • To travel to a library, archives, museum, or cultural center holding Alaska-based primary sources.

  • To assist with travel and other costs associated with giving presentations at an annual meeting, conference, symposium, or similar event.

  • For research expenses, such as photocopying or scanning, borrowing or access fees, publication expenses; expenses for other products resulting from that research; and other expenses.

  • To facilitate digitization of portions of a collection to allow a researcher to work remotely if the recipient is unable to conduct on-site research at the repository holding the original records.

  • For specific research needs, such as the completion of a segment of a research project or the completion of a project.

Description
Individual grants are awarded each April and October and may be used anytime in the subsequent fifteen months for expenses related to furthering research in progress. Upper-division undergraduate students or graduate students with a course of study related to Alaska, non-tenured faculty, and independent researchers are encouraged to apply. Applications are also encouraged from tenured college and university professors and independent researchers from other localities within Alaska or elsewhere.

Grants can be based on a history-related theme that may be connected to a current, past, or future Alaska history-related exhibit of the Anchorage Museum or a symposium, conference, or workshop. Within a five-year period, no individual is eligible to receive more than a combined total of $2,000 from all Reeder-Davies Research Grants.

Application Process
An application consists of items 1 through 4:

  1. A letter of intent describing the research project for which you are requesting funds (no longer than two pages, single spaced). Include information outlining the topic of interest as well as the nature, scope, and goals of the proposed project. Include your name, mailing and email addresses, telephone/cellphone number.

  2. A timetable for completion within 15 months from the date of the start of the project.

  3. A current resume.

  4. A budget. Include a description of how the requested funds will be used.

Grant Criteria
Applications will be evaluated by a joint committee composed of three members of the Cook Inlet Historical Society Board of Directors. Evaluations will be made according to the following criteria:

  1. Quality of writing and organization

  2. Significance and originality (or a fresh treatment) of the proposed topic

  3. A well-supported budget for travel, digitization, or both, or other expenses

  4. Ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline

Applications that are incomplete or that do not follow the instructions in the application procedures will be disqualified. The Cook Inlet Historical Society has budgeted a total of $4,000 annually for grants.

Deadlines
September 1 (each calendar year)
March 1 (each calendar year)

An applicant who is selected for a grant will be notified by email in the month of April for the spring grant awards and in the month of October for the fall grant awards.

Send applications to the Cook Inlet Historical Society with the subject line, Reeder-Davies Grant Application, to cookinlethistoricalsociety@gmail.com.

Requirements

Successful applicants will be expected to provide a one page report to the Cook Inlet Historical Society’s Board of Directors at the end of the project outlining how the funds were used and how they furthered the grantee’s research. This report should include a copy of the research product.

Grant support from the Reeder-Davies Research Grant and the Cook Inlet Historical Society should be acknowledged in any publication resulting from this research. The recipient may be asked to present their research at a Cook Inlet Historical Society program and/or contribute to Cook Inlet Historical Society’s website.

The recipient will be asked to complete a grant agreement acknowledging receipt of the award and to use the funds according to the grant program guidelines and consistent with their budget and timeline. The recipient will be asked if they agree to the requirements, goals, and processes of this grant.

For questions, please contact the Cook Inlet Historical Society by email: cookinlethistoricalsociety@gmail.com.

The Reeder-Davies grant honors the memory of John Reeder and Brian Davies, two longtime members of the Cook Inlet Historical Society Board of Directors.

 

John Reeder
John Reeder (1941-2013) was born and raised in Dallas, Texas. After obtaining a B.A. in history from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he attended law school at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer primarily at the headwaters of the Amazon in Peru. Returning to Dallas, John served as house counsel for a small energy startup, Earth Resources Company, before the call of the mountains, and the Alaska Attorney General’s Office, lured him and his VW bus north to Alaska in 1971. He met Loisann Lindemood in Anchorage and they were married six months later.

John served three years as chief attorney in the Anchorage branch of the Attorney General’s office, before joining BP Exploration as chief counsel in Alaska, a position he held for twenty-two years. In addition to his professional career, John was an active community volunteer who served on the boards of the Alaska State Council on the Arts, Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Commission, the building committee for the 2010 Anchorage Museum expansion, Cook Inlet Historical Society, Alaska Photographic Center, Susitna Valley Association, and Alaska Common Ground.

John was a member of the Board of Directors of the Cook Inlet Historical Society for nearly two decades before his death, serving as its membership chair the entire period. As chair of the Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Commission, he was instrumental in crafting the governing ordinance for the Anchorage Museum.

Brian Davies
Brian Davies (1940-2012) grew up on his family’s farm in north Herefordshire, England, close to the Welsh border hills. He attended Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a degree in geology and was hired by British Petroleum (BP). In 1971, BP sent him to Alaska where he met his wife, Sharon. In 1979, Brian was transferred to San Francisco, and then to Houston. In 1990, Brian and Sharon made their permanent return to Anchorage.

Brian served as chairperson of the building committee for the 2010 Anchorage Museum expansion project and dedicated twelve years to the effort. He developed a deep commitment to the Museum, and was serving on the Museum Foundation and the Museum Association Board at the time of his death. The temporary exhibits gallery, the Brian E. Davies Chugach Gallery, is named in his honor.

Brian served as vice president of the Cook Inlet Historical Society for nearly two decades before his death. Sharon and Brian were instrumental in helping the Society bring the compelling American Museum of Natural History exhibition on the legendary Antarctic voyage of Sir Ernest Shackleton to the Anchorage Museum in 2004.

 

Past Recipients of the Reeder-Davies Grant

2016, Spring (Reeder-Davies Grant in Alaska History) David Reamer, “Without Open Arms: The Alaska Response to the World War II-ERA Refugee Crisis,” Alaska History, vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 2018), 15-33.

2015, Fall (Brian Davies Memorial Grant for Alaska History) Holly Miowak Guise, “World War II and the First Peoples of the Last Frontier: Alaska Native Voices, Indigenous Equilibrium Theory, and Wartime Alaska, 1942-1945,” PhD dissertation, Yale University, 2018.

2014, Fall (Brian Davies Memorial Grant for Alaska History) Jenya Anichtchenko, “Drawing 18th Century Alaska: The Artistic Legacy of Luka Voronin,” Alaska Anthropological Society Annual Meeting, March 7, 1915, Anchorage, Alaska.

2014, Fall (Brian Davies Memorial Grant for Alaska History) Doug Capra, The Spaces Between: Stories from the Kenai Mountains to the Kenai Fjords (Eagle River, AK: Ember Press, 2014).