Vantage Point Senior Historian Eric Zimmer won the 2017 Rachel Carson Prize for Best Dissertation from the American Society of Environmental History for “Red Earth Nation: Environment and Sovereignty in Modern Meskwaki History” (University of Iowa, 2016). The selection committee described his work as such: “This year’s winner for the Rachel Carson Prize is Eric Steven […]
In March 2016, Eric Abrahamson and Lois Facer traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, where they received the 2016 Excellence in Consulting Award from the National Council on Public History. They won the award for the six-book Rockefeller Centennial Series, which helped commemorate the 100th anniversary of the New York-based Rockefeller Foundation. In March 2016, Eric Abrahamson and […]
The story of the creation of the MasterCard Foundation is unique in the history of philanthropy. Founded as an independent, private foundation and endowed by MasterCard in conjunction with its initial public offering in 2006, the foundation’s assets (primarily MasterCard shares) have appreciated enormously over the last ten years. It now ranks among the world’s largest private […]
In 1963, Malcolm X accused philanthropist Stephen Currier of emasculating the revolutionary impulse of grassroots forces in the civil rights movement. Working with the major leaders of the movement and the Kennedy White House, Currier’s five-year-old Taconic Foundation had played a leading role in the development and deployment of a massive voter registration initiative across […]
South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard has appointed Vantage Point’s Eric Abrahamson to the South Dakota Humanities Council. The Council works to promote and celebrate the literature and history of the state and to engage communities in thoughtful conversations about the state’s cultural and historical landscape.
Founders of family foundations often seek to give back to their communities, but many also hope that the business of philanthropy will hold the family together long after the founder has passed away. As the Wall Street Journal reports, keeping the younger generation engaged isn’t easy, especially if they don’t feel a connection to the […]
With support from Library of Congress, the South Dakota State Library hosts “Digging Deeper into Primary Sources,” a day-long conference for students, teachers and others interested in exploring archival materials. The webinar takes place on March 6, 2015. Eric John Abrahamson, in his capacity as volunteer project director of the Black Hills Knowledge Network, […]
With the 50th anniversary of Selma on the horizon, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has launched a film series entitled Created Equal. The four films in the series chronicle efforts to win civil rights for African Americans from the time of the Abolitionists to the Freedom Rides of 1961. With support from […]
Eric John Abrahamson traveled to Grand Forks, North Dakota this week to speak to a gathering of community leaders hosted by the Grand Forks Community Foundation. In his pro bono role as project director of the Black Hill Knowledge Network, Abrahamson talked about changes taking place in the marketplace for local information and the need […]
L&H Industrial, a world leader in the design and manufacturing of aftermarket parts for mining shovels, draglines, and drills, marked its 50th anniversary with the publication of Frontier Industrialists, Fifty Years of Innovation at L&H. The book was produced by Vantage Point Historical Services and authored by Sam Hurst. Copies of Frontier Industrialists are available […]