The Delaware Industrial History Initiative (DIHI) is under way. The goal of DIHI is to document--digitally--Delawareans' experiences with industrialization and industrial decline. DHF has made grants available for such digitization projects, supported in part by the "We the People" program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The following project was granted funding by DHF in 2010:

Grantee and Project Name:

• Berkana, Center for Media and Education, Inc., Delaware's Coastal Zone Act: The Legacy of a Rebel with a Conscience

Purpose:

Berkana Center for Media and Education will record and house (at the Delaware Public Archives) Governor Russell Peterson's oral history of the passage of Delaware's 1981 Coastal Zone Act which stopped the industrial development of the Delaware coastline. Despite multiple attempts to weaken it over the years, this bill is still one of the strongest pieces of state-based environmental legislation in the United States, and, according to Carol Hoffecker, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Delaware, it "remains Delaware's greatest and most comprehensive legislative achievement towards maintaining a livable environment." Governor Peterson, then a Republican and former DuPont research chemist, recognized the future significance of industrial development not only to Delaware's coastline, but to the quality of life for future Delawareans. He took a stand against Shell Oil's plans to build a heavy oil refining port in southern New Castle County that threatened to destroy open spaces. Recognizing the conflicting values of industrial development and natural habitat preservation, Peterson and a small group of committed legislators bucked the corporate legacy of Delaware and effectively pitted local landowners against area businessmen and union workers against management. Their revolutionary efforts "forced" Delawareans to address the environmental movement directly. Governor Peterson has never been interviewed on video about this topic.

Technological Elements:

• Digital recording, housed at Delaware Public Archives

Target Population:

• Documentarians
• All DIHI projects, ideally, will be integrated in school and university curricula (not only as a source for teachers, but also as the product of student assignments, e.g., oral histories)
  
  

For more information on the Delaware Industrial History Initiative, click here or contact Program Officer Catherine Homsey at (302) 657-0650 ext. 14.