UCLA history department gets $10-million donation

UCLA’s history department is making its own bit of history.

Officials announced Wednesday that the department is receiving its largest donation ever: a $10-million gift from a British foundation. Most of the Arcadia Fund’s gift will be used to financially support graduate students in history, and the rest will provide funds for such things as lectures, seminars, conferences and outreach to the public.

History department Chairman David N. Myers said the Arcadia Fund's gift “will have an enormous impact" on teaching, research and efforts to bring historical knowledge to the wider community. He added, in a statement, that the gift “sends a powerful message that history is vital to understanding not only the past but the present, at UCLA and nationally.”

The Arcadia Fund specializes in helping with the preservation of cultural knowledge, such as rare archives and artifacts, and the protection of threatened natural environments.

In 2009, the Arcadia Fund gave UCLA library a $5-million donation to help expand digitization efforts and purchase new materials, among other uses.

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Photo: The quad at UCLA. Credit: Los Angeles Times