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Our Mission

  • Texas history is unique, colorful, and vast. Realizing the need to preserve Texan's shared history, the Texas Historical Foundation was incorporated in 1954 as a 501 (c) (3) organization to take on this mission. Using public donations, THF invests in this work by providing funds to nonprofits that are saving the buildings, artifacts, documents and traditions of the Lone Star past."

Over the years, Texas Historical Foundation has helped hundreds of organizations reach their preservation goals.

  • Projects Funded

    438

  • Dollars Given Since 1990

    $2,265,130

Latest Round of THF Grant Funding Announced

Eight nonprofits were approved for THF grant funding at our Summer 2024 board meeting. The grants support projects that are designed to preserve Texas history and culture, some at a statewide level and others on a more focused, local level. Congratulations to all of the grant recipients! We look forward to visiting these sites soon.

  • Fort Worth Museum of Science & History, Fort Worth, received support to restore artifacts from their collection of items belonging to the city’s namesake General William Jenkins Worth for a special public exhibit, opening Spring 2025 at Fort Worth City Hall.
  • Sugarloaf Pictures, Austin, in partnership with Austin Film Society was awarded funding for the full-length documentary film, Tonkawa: They All Stay Together, chronicling the tribe’s journey to reestablish themselves in their ancestral home in the Texas hill country. 
  • Texas General Land Office, Austin, will use granted funds to host student presenters at their 2024 Save Texas History Symposium, highlighting the GLO’s unparalleled work in preserving the state’s historic archives. This year’s symposium will take place September 6-7 in Austin. 
  • Documentary Arts, Dallas, was given grant support for an album of covers showcasing the work of legendary Deep Ellum artists, including blues pioneers Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie Johnson. Local and national contemporary musicians will perform their renditions of the songs that shaped popular American music for generations.  
  • Liz Carpenter Film Partners, in partnership with Austin’s Kovno Communications, received funding towards the forthcoming documentary film “Shaking It Up: The Life & Times of Liz Carpenter”, chronicling legendary journalist and political operator Liz Carpenter’s role in the LBJ administration and beyond. 
  • Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, received support for the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and Republic of Texas Presidential Library Collections digital artifact repository, making their expansive collection of Sam Houston artifacts available to scholars and the public alike.   
  • Friends of the Bristol Schoolhouse, Ennis, will use grant funding to build an ADA ramp, improving accessibility at the 1940 WPA schoolhouse-turned-community center. 
  • buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, Dallas, was awarded funding for the creation of three models depicting the  Tenth Street neighborhood, an historically black former freedman’s town, at critical junctures in its history: before and after the neighborhood was bisected by a highway,  and the present day. The project is part of the group’s larger advocacy work to preserve the historic Dallas neighborhood. 

Since 1954, the Texas Historical Foundation has provided funding for historic preservation and education projects across the state, empowering communities to preserve their own pieces of Texas history. The next round of grant applications are due December 1st. You can find more information about our grant program on our website. 

Pictured above: Sugarloaf Pictures filming atop Red Mountain, photo by Bob Odell; mural of Blind Lemon Jefferson and Blind Willie Johnson in Dallas' Deep Ellum neighborhood; Sam Houston Memorial Museum artifacts.

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