Packard Humanities Institute

Packard Humanities Institute
Formation	1987
Type	NGO
Legal status	foundation
Purpose	Humanities Research
Location	Los Altos, California
President	David Woodley Packard
Website	www.packhum.org

The Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) is a non-profit foundation, established in 1987, and located in Los Altos, California, which funds projects in a wide range of conservation concerns in the fields of archaeology, music, film preservation, and historic conservation, plus Greek epigraphy,^[1] with an aim to create tools for basic research in the Humanities.

History

Over the years, it has created databases on Latin literature, Bible texts, texts in Arabic and Coptic, Ancient Greek papyri and inscriptions, Founding Fathers of the United States: Benjamin Franklin and others, and also Persian literature in translation. It also funds external projects such as the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources and the complete works of C.P.E. Bach.

PHI is also concerned with early education of children. The Institute is independent of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and is not associated in any way with any Hewlett-Packard Company foundations.

Its current president is former professor David Woodley Packard, who has served as a director, but never an officer, of Hewlett Packard.

National Audio-Visual Conservation Center

Main article: National Audio-Visual Conservation Center

Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation

In 1997 with the approval of the United States Congress the David and Lucile Packard Foundation purchased the former high-security storage facility operated by the Federal Reserve Board. The facility is located inside Mount Pony in Culpeper, Virginia. With Congress and the Library of Congress the facility was transformed into the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, which completed construction in mid-2007, called the Packard Campus (PCAVC).^[2] The Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation is a state-of-the-art facility funded as a gift to the nation by the Packard Humanities Institute. The Packard Campus is the site where the nation’s library acquires, preserves and provides access to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collection of motion pictures, television programs, radio broadcasts and sound recordings.^[3] The Packard Campus is home to nearly 7 million collection items. It provides staff support for the Library of Congress National Film Preservation Board, the National Film Preservation Board and the national registries for film and recorded sound.^[4]

Restoration of historic theaters

The historic California Theatre, (Fox Theatre)

Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto California

PHI has worked on the restoration of two historic theaters.

San Jose, California Fox Theatres, that is now the new home of the Opera San José.^[5] Opened 1927 the San Jose Fox closed in 1973. PHI renovated and reopened in it in 2004. Now called the California Theater.^[6]
PHI worked on the restoration of the historic Stanford Theatre. Designed by architects Weeks and Day, the theater was originally opened in 1925. In 1987 it was purchased and restored by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. It is currently operated by the Stanford Theatre Foundation, led by David Woodley Packard.