The Packard Humanities Institute
The Packard Humanities
Institute (PHI) was established in 1987 to create tools for basic research in
the Humanities and to foster public interest in the history, literature, and
music of the past. Before PHI existed, the David and Lucile
Packard Foundation made grants to support some of these same
activities.
Since its founding,
PHI has been an operating rather than
a grant-making foundation. Our mode
of operation has differed significantly from that of the Packard
Foundation in that PHI has undertaken a small number of projects, all of which
have involved long-term financial commitments and professional partnerships
with teams of scholars at major universities (including Yale, Princeton, Duke,
Cornell, and Michigan). Most PHI projects have been expected to last for a
decade or more. Our professional staff participates directly as an active
partner in these projects and does not spend its time evaluating a constant
stream of outside proposals. In fact, PHI has never accepted outside
proposals.
In its first
decade, PHI devoted most of its attention to creating electronic databases in
three areas: (1) Latin literature, (2) Ancient Greek papyri and inscriptions,
(3) Founding Fathers of American democracy (Benjamin Franklin and others). More
than 3000 PHI CD ROMs are currently licensed to scholars and institutions in
over 50 countries.
More recently, PHI has
initiated a small number of long-term projects in archaeology (in Greece and
Albania), film preservation (at the Library of Congress and the UCLA Film
Archive), restoration of historic theatres (including the San Jose Fox as a new
home for Opera San Jose), music publishing (including a complete
edition of C.P.E.
Bach), education (especially the teaching of reading in the early grades), and
human rights in emerging democracies.
Despite our recently
broadened areas of interest, PHI does not expect to modify its historical
pattern of concentrating on a small number of long-term projects.
The Packard Humanities
Institute does not accept unsolicited proposals.