A new grant is underway to preserve historical archives from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).

According to PR Newswire, the world’s leader in visual communication — Getty Images — is in partnership with the Getty Family and Stand Together to launch the inaugural Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs.

Stand Together, a philanthropic community created to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time, have partnered with Getty Images in order to digitize a huge part of the visual history of HBCUs.

A total of $500,000 will be committed toward the digitization of two HBCU’s photographic archives and includes the digitization of up to 100,000 archival assets per Grant recipient.

An opportunity to apply metadata and licensing opportunities to the winning HBCU’s existing digitized libraries will also be available to the selected institutions.

“Black history is American history,” said Grant judge, Aba Blankson, NAACP Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. “While some of that history is known, too much is still hidden. Our HBCUs hold precious and treasured experiences, stories, images, and artifacts. We are excited to participate in this important initiative to preserve and strengthen the ability to amplify our collective story.”

Grant recipients will not only retail all copyright for their visual assets but once the historical content is digitized it will be placed in a newly created stand-alone photo collection titled the “HBCU Photo Collection.”

The collection will be available for licensing via the Getty Images platform which is home to some of the largest privately-owned historical photo archives in the world.

Royalties from the images that are preserved through the Grants will be funneled back into impact programs and 50 percent will go to Grant recipients.

“Photographic collections housed in HBCU’s from the 20th Century focus on the notion of photography as biography and helped shape the fabric of African American identities,” said Grant judge, Dr. Deborah Willis, Academic Director, Professor & Chair, NYU Tisch School Of The Arts. “These collections explore the cultural values, educational and religious traditions, as well as perceptions of black communities through to the 21st Century. Collective and individual memories are the foundation of these photographs highlighting the classrooms, student activities on campus, scientific explorations, art practices, and the making of portraits from college presidents to teachers and visitors to the campuses. The Getty Images Photo Archive Grants for HBCUs is an essential part of the ongoing documentation and preservation of Black images at HBCUs.”

The HBCU Photo Collection will be made available as part of the Getty Images’ content donation initiative for non-commercial use free of charge to support the education and reflection of Black history for Black storytellers and not-for-profits.

This is a part of the Getty Images Black History & Culture Collection set to launch later this year.

For more information on the program, click here.