The NWP Archives Project

Date: April 2017

Summary: In 2014, in partnership with The Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley, we launched the NWP Archives Project to ensure preservation and accessibility of NWP organizational records, publications, and resources. The collection was completed and officially available in April of 2017.

A Look Back

In 1974, Jim Gray and his colleagues convened the first summer institute of the Bay Area Writing Project at UC Berkeley—the very first writing project site—with two dozen teachers. Over the years, these educators promoted a radically new vision of professional learning, one that has taken root across the nation. Thanks to their hard work, and the talents and efforts of over 100,000 teacher-leaders throughout the U.S., we have generated a national network of sites which have served more than two million educators, pre-K through University, and across the curriculum.

The NWP Archives Project

In 2014, in partnership with The Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley, we launched the NWP Archives project to ensure preservation and accessibility of NWP organizational records, publications, and resources, including more than 100 oral history interviews from founding Writing Project site directors, scholars, teacher-leaders, and funders. The NWP Archives provide a rich resource for all who are interested in the history of literacy and, in particular, composition and rhetoric, and the role of teacher leadership and professionalization in the United States, as well as the spread of the NWP model to a range of international locations.

This project was entirely funded by contributions from NWP leaders, supporters, and friends, who helped NWP exceed its $100,000 fundraising goal. Through this effort, we ensure that the history of the work we have done together, and will continue to do, is preserved for generations.

Our NWP and "40 for 40"

In celebration of our 40th anniversary in 2014, Our NWP opened with "40 for 40," a collaborative writing project intended to launch a collective and public memory of "our NWP." Forty teacher-leaders and directors from around the country wrote to the theme "Our NWP," and beginning June 23, 2014, one piece was posted every day for 40 days using the hashtag #40for40.