History of historic preservation: A national and global perspective

1. History of historic preservation: A national and global perspective

2. Historical Museums and Historic Preservation Preservation Goals • Commemoration - 1800s+ • Recordation - 1930s + • Evaluation - 1970s + • Protection • Acquisition • Deaccession • Adaptation • Conservation

3. Historical Museums and Historic Preservation Museum Goals • Collection - 1800s - 1950s • Description - 1950s - 1960s • Analysis - 1970s - present

4. 1786 - 1827 Peale Museum in Philadelphia, opened by Charles Willson Peale, painter and collector Collections include: • Art • Natural history • American Indian artifacts • American history exhibits

5. 1813 • Philadelphia State House (Independence Hall) saved from demolition

6. 1824 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania founded in Philadelphia Library holdings include: • Genealogical information • Manuscripts • Printed historical information

7. 1835 Eugène Viollet-le-Duc appointed to supervise the restoration of the basilica of St. Madeleine in Vézelay, France

8. 1846 Smithsonian Institution established as national museum by act of US Congress • Main building, the “Castle,” designed by James Renwick, finished in 1855

9. 1853 Mount Vernon Ladies' Association formed to save Mount Vernon by Ann Pamela Cunningham and volunteers

10. 1872 Yellowstone National Park designated a federally protected area

11. 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia • Celebrates 100 anniversary of US • Introduces telephone, telegraph, linoleum, typewriter • “New England Kitchen of 1776” exhibit

12. New England Kitchen of 1776

13. 1877 Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings founded by William Morris and Philip Webb in London, England

14. Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Manifesto, 1877."A society coming before the public with such a name as that above written must needs explain how, and why, it proposes to protect those ancient buildings which, to most people doubtless, seem to have so many and such excellent protectors. This, then, is the explanation we offer. No doubt within the last fifty years a new interest, almost like another sense, has arisen in these ancient monuments of art; and they have become the subject of one of the most interesting of studies, and of an enthusiasm, religious, historical, artistic, which is one of the undoubted gains of our time; yet we think that if the present treatment of them be continued, our descendants will find them useless for study and chilling to enthusiasm. We think that those last fifty years of knowledge and attention have done more for their destruction than all the foregoing centuries of revolution, violence and contempt…”

15. …It is for all these buildings, therefore, of all times and styles, that we plead, and call upon those who have to deal with them, to put Protection in the place of Restoration, to stave off decay by daily care, to prop a perilous wall or mend a leaky roof by such means as are obviously meant for support or covering, and show no pretence of other art, and otherwise to resist all tampering with either the fabric or ornament of the building as it stands; if it has become inconvenient for its present use, to raise another building rather than alter or enlarge the old one; in fine to treat our ancient buildings as monuments of a bygone art, created by bygone manners, that modern art cannot meddle with without destroying. Thus, and thus only, shall we escape the reproach of our learning being turned into a snare to us; thus, and thus only can we protect our ancient buildings, and hand them down instructive and venerable to those that come after us.”Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Manifesto, 1877.

16. 1879 • Boston Antiquarian Club founded to save the Old State House from being moved to Chicago for World's Fair • Reorganized as Bostonian Society in 1881 to operate museum in Old State House

17. 1880 The Seven Lamps of Architecture byJohn Ruskin published in London • In the “Lamp of Memory” headvocated for conservation instead of restoration of old buildings

18. Neither by the public, nor by those who have the care of public monuments, is the true meaning of the word restoration understood. It means the most total destruction which a building can suffer: a destruction out of which no remnants can be gathered: a destruction accompanied with false description of the thing destroyed. Do not let us deceive ourselves in this important matter; it is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture. John Ruskin, “The Lamp of Memory,” Seven Lamps of Architecture, 1880.

19. 1882 Ancient Monuments Act enacted by UK parliament. • Provides for government to have the authority and funding for maintaining monuments, the appointment of monument inspectors, a “schedule” list of monuments and legal penalties for persons who deface monuments

20. 1889 • First national funding for historic preservation in USUS Congress appropriates $2,000 to preserve Casa Grande ruin in Arizona

21. 1895 National Trust founded in Great Britain as a charity to acquire and protect threatened coastline, countryside and buildings

22. 1898 Fanueil Hall (1762/1806) in Boston, rebuilt to make fireproof

23. 1899 John Dewey in The School and Society, encourages teachers to provide students with direct experience of history by visiting historic places • “The aim of education is to enable individuals to continue their education.”

24. 1901 William Sumner Appleton founded the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA), now known as Historic New England

25. Appleton’s Five Principles • Proceed slowly and when in doubt, wait • Hire experienced professionals to do the work • Document every stage, taking plenty of pictures • Save samples of the originals as evidence when anything must be replaced • Mark new work so that it cannot be later confused with the original

26. 1906 Antiquities Act • first national preservation legislation in the US • designated national monuments on federal land • imposes penalties for destroying federally owned sites

27. 1911 Parks Canada founded • world's first national park service • Currently an agency in Environment Canada

28. Parks Canada • Mandate: On behalf of the people of Canada, we protect and present nationally significant examples of Canada's natural and cultural heritage, and foster public understanding, appreciation and enjoyment in ways that ensure the ecological and commemorative integrity of these places for present and future generations.

29. 1913 Wallace Nutting (1861-1941) minister, photographer and preservationist, publishes Old New England Pictures • Over the next several years he acquires and restores a “Chain of Colonial Picture Houses” which are open to the public for a fee and serve as backdrops for his photographs • 1918 - publishes first catalog of reproduction furniture • 1922 - publishes Beautiful Vermont

30. Wallace Nutting “The acquisition of old paneling and its installation in rooms which perhaps never had any, is legitimate. If the dwelling is substantial there is nothing but praise in the effort to give it good dress.” 1936

31. 1916 • National Park Service established in the US

32. 1926 • John D. Rockefeller, Jr. begins funding support for the restoration of Williamsburg, Virginia

33. Colonial Williamsburg • Project lead by Rev. W. A. R. Goodwin • Buildings on the 130 acre site, “weeded” to preserve 18th century structures, with important missing buildings added as replicas, including the 1770 Courthouse recreated in 1932.

34. 1927 - 1931 • Storrowton Village erected at Eastern States Exposition, West Springfield, MA, as a recreated antique village using disassembled buildings from Massachusetts and New Hampshire • Named for Helen Storrow, benefactor and trustee of Eastern States Exposition

35. 1929 • Henry Ford establishes Edison Institute, renamed Greenfield Village, in Dearborn, Michigan with relocated and replicated historic buildings, including a replica of Independence Hall

36. 1931 • Historic Maryland founded in 1931 as the Society for the Preservation of Maryland Antiquities. Purpose: preserving historic buildings, neighborhoods, landscapes and archaeological sites through outreach, funding and advocacy

37. 1931 • Charleston, South Carolina establishes its "Old and Historic District," the country's first designated historic district

38. 1931 • The Athens Charter for the Restoration of Historic Monuments adopted at the First International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments in Athens, Greece

39. At the Congress in Athens the following seven main resolutions were made and called "Carta del Restauro":1. International organizations for Restoration on operational and advisory levels are to be established.2. Proposed Restoration projects are to be subjected to knowledgeable criticism to prevent mistakes which will cause loss of character and historical values to the structures.3. Problems of preservation of historic sites are to be solved by legislation at national level for all countries.4. Excavated sites which are not subject to immediate restoration should be reburied for protection.5. Modern techniques and materials may be used in restoration work.6. Historical sites are to be given strict custodial protection.7. Attention should be given to the protection of areas surrounding historic sites.

40. 1933 • Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt

41. 1935 • Historic Sites Act passed by US Congress to establish historic preservation policy; it "established policy ...to preserve for public use historic sites, buildings and objects of national significance for the inspiration and benefit of the people of the United States." Historic Sites Act of 1935 [ PUBLIC– N o . 2 9 2 – 74TH CONGRESS] [ S. 2 0 7 3 ] AN ACT To provide for the preservation of historic American sites, buildings, objects, and antiquities of national significance, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it is hereby declared that it is a national policy to preserve for public use historic sites, buildings and objects of national significance for the inspiration and benefit of the people of the United States.

42. 1936 • Vieux Carré established as historic district in New Orleans, Louisiana

43. 1941 Lewis Mumford, encourages architects to seek a new direction for the future within the context of regionalism, rather than just reproducing historical designs in The South in Architecture.

44. Lewis Mumford “Let us be clear about this, the forms that people used in other civilizations or in other periods of our own country’s history were intimately part of the whole structure of their life. There is no method of mechanically reproducing these forms or bringing them back to life; it is a piece of rank materials to attempt to duplicate some earlier form, because of its delight to the eye, without realizing how empty a form is without the life that once supported it. There is no such thing as a modern colonial house any more than there is such a thing as a modern Tudor house.

45. Lewis Mumford “If one seeks to reproduce such a building in our own day, every mark on it will betray the fact that it is a fake, and the harder the architect works to conceal that fact, the more patent the fact will be…The great lesson of history–and this applies to all the arts–is that the past cannot be captured except in spirit. We cannot live another person’s life; we cannot, except in the spirit of a costume ball… Our task is not to imitate the past, but to understand it, so that we may face the opportunity of our own day and deal with them in an equally creative spirit.” From The South in Architecture, 1941.

46. 1946 Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts opened to public • Recreated village used to display collection of antiques with guides in period costume • Mixture of moved and reassembled buildings and recreated conjectural historic buildings

47. 1947 • Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont, founded by Electra Havemeyer Webb, collector of American folk art. • Of 39 exhibition buildings, 25 are historic. Most were relocated to the site.

48. 1949 National Trust for Historic Preservation established by an act of the US Congress as membership-based organization partially supported by federal appropriation • Headquartered in Washington, D.C. • Currently has 270,000 members, 6 regional offices, 28 historic sites

50. 1952 Historic Deerfield incorporated by Mr. & Mrs. Henry Flynt of Greenwich, CT, to preserve the historic Deerfield, MA village with some relocated houses as a public museum