Our mission is preservation

Dr. Mildred Hart “Dede” Bailey was a co-founder of the Natchitoches Historic Foundation (NHF).

She served Northwestern State University (NSU) as a Chairman, Department Head, and a Director in the Education Department. In 1966 she helped to create a graduate reading program to better the future teachers under her care.

Today her legacy lives on in the efforts of NSU and NHF to better prepare for the future and preserve the past for those yet to come. The Mildred Hart Bailey Memorial Scholarship is for graduate level students with an interest in historic preservation who wish to undertake a project related to that field.

Students awarded the scholarship will:

• Receive a $1,000 stipend, $500 in each regular semester. The scholarship is not need-based, but awarded based upon the quality and significance of the proposed project.

• Have demonstrated interest in historic preservation and interpretation. This may encompass not only the physical restoration of historic properties, but recording both written and oral, cataloguing, research, facilities management to historic

• preservation standards as established by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Register of Historic Places, archaeology, and promotion and presentation of historic properties for tourism purposes.

• Submit a written Scope of Work.

• Complete the project within one school year, culminating at the conclusion of the project in a deliverable defined in the initial written Scope of Work.

• Serve as a non-voting student representative on the NHF Board, attending Board meetings and taking part in NHF activities.

• Be mentored by an NHF Board member, i.e., the NHF Board President or a designee.