A campus-affiliated project archiving the works of Jewish feminist and anarchist Emma Goldman may come to a close after 34 years due to lack of funding.

Created in 1980 with a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission of the National Archive, the Emma Goldman Papers Project chronicles the Russian immigrant’s involvement in women’s and labor rights as well as the anarchist movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The project’s office holds approximately 40,000 documents concerning the activist, many of which are now on microfilm at various research libraries across the country — a product of more than $4 million in funding.

Judy Havemann, director of communications of the National Endowment for Humanities — which has intermittently funded the project with grants — said Goldman “had a considerable and significant impact on American life, and the endowment decided these papers were worth annotating and collecting.”

After various deadline extensions, however, the office of the vice chancellor for research cut support in 2003 — after providing approximately $1.2 million in funding — when it determined the project was not near completion, according to a status report on the project that year.

“Projects have a life cycle, and there is a ticking clock when it comes to fundraising,” said Associate Chancellor Nils Gilman. “It doesn’t matter if it’s microbiology or a radical feminist from a century ago — researchers feel their projects should get funded essentially forever. … Framing this as an entitlement for funding is unrealistic.”

Project director Candace Falk cites inadequate funding as the main reason deadlines have not been met and says that without a professional fundraiser, she and other staff members have been forced to conduct outreach, diverting time from research.

Since 2003, Falk has depended on private donations and the federal funding provided at the project’s conception. Because of depleted funds, however, the project is losing its affiliation with the campus at the end of the month. She plans to continue to fundraise through private philanthropic sources, appeal to Chancellor Nicholas Dirks and reach out to other archives across the country.

Gilman said the campus provides “seed” funding for projects to get them off the ground, but as they mature, researchers must raise money to sustain their work. He said the campus provided support for 15 years: three times as long as was originally planned.

Falk said Goldman’s politics may contribute to the lack of support for the project.

“She is too controversial – our project is too radical for scholars and too scholarly for radicals,” Falk said. “We focus on someone pushed out by historical narratives, (giving her) the same attention and weight of prominent men of the same era.”

Contact Frances Fitzgerald at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @f_fitzgerald325.