One of the best ways of learning is by doing – which is exactly what ALHFAM – the Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums is dedicated to supporting. In a digital era, working with your hands is becoming an outlet for expression and sustainable action – topics we dive into with Kathy Dickson, the President of ALHFAM, on this week’s PreserveCast.

Kathy Dickson is the Director of the Museums and Historic Sites Division with the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS) where she oversees operations at 25 museums and historical properties across the state. She has served as the president of the Oklahoma Museums Association and the Mountain-Plains Museums Association, and as a board member for ALHFAM. Kathy served as Co-Chair for the 2018 Annual Meeting. Though born in Idaho, Kathy has been in Oklahoma since age 5 which pretty much makes her a native Oklahoman. Kathy started work at the OHS as a seasonal worker right after graduating from college, and they still haven’t been able to get rid of her.

At its core, historic preservation should be about instrumentalizing heritage, broadly defined, to sustain communities and promote resilience.” That’s the argument Dr. Erica Avrami makes in one of her most recent publications on the legacy of preservation policy and the future of the field – a compelling and timely topic of conversation on this week’s PreserveCast where we’ll dive deep into what the future of preservation may hold.

Erica Avrami, PhD, is the James Marston Fitch Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation at Columbia GSAPP. A preservationist and planner, Avrami also directs the Urban Heritage, Sustainability, and Social Inclusion initiative, and co-directs the Adapting the Existing Built Environment Earth Network. Avrami challenges students to approach preservation as a process of co-learning and co-creating knowledge, engaging multiple publics and disciplines to investigate complex social-spatial histories and navigate the stories and values ascribed to places. Her research and teaching extend the heritage enterprise beyond a practice focused on sites and building, exploring preservation as a form of public policy that functions across geographic scales and diverse demographics. She interrogates the intentions, processes, and outcomes of preservation in relation to social justice and the climate crisis, and seeks to transition heritage tools and preservation policies toward equity, resilience, and decarbonization.

Historic preservationists know that our work isn’t just about physically preserving historic buildings, structures, and sites. It’s also about preserving and celebrating the intangible heritage and culture of people and their communities. I would be remiss, and so would this podcast, if we didn't lead by acknowledging the heart-breaking conflict in Ukraine and the value and importance of those intangible pieces of the Ukrainian identity, too. On this special edition of PreserveCast, we’re sitting down with Rachel Rettaliata to discuss what’s at risk as this illegal and unjust invasion drags on.

Join us today for another Trades Takeover! Director of The Campaign for Historic Trades (powered by Preservation Maryland) Natalie Henshaw is joined by Abbey Vander Sluis, former member of NPS' Traditional Trades Advancement Program. 

Hailing from Knoxville, Tennessee, Abbey Vander Sluis moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee to attend the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology. Abbey originally went to school to become an archaeologist but applied for a myriad of jobs that allowed her to work outdoors, a top priority for her. After finding the Traditional Trades Advancement Program and getting the opportunity to work in a National Park, Abbey became determined to further her career in the National Park Service, finding that preservation was closely tied to archaeology. Abbey currently interns with Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. 

Related: The National Park Service and private industry need tradespeople with specialized skills to preserve and maintain our country’s valuable historic structures, and The Campaign for Historic Trades is working to meet that need. 2022 positions are open for the Traditional Trades Advancement Program (TTAP) and the Historic Stewards Program. The Traditional Trades Advancement Program started in 2018. TTAP members serve in parks across the country. The Historic Stewards Program is a new initiative from the Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC). For this inaugural year, positions are available at the HPTC in Frederick, Maryland, to applicants with prior experience.

For more information, visit:

https://historictrades.org/2022/03/02/now-hiring-historic-trades-internships-with-the-national-park-service/

Common wheat is one of most important field crops around the world and has been for millennia. In an effort to bring together different museum sites, living history farms, the “Year on the Field” Project seeks to exchange knowledge about common wheat cultivation through the centuries and in different parts of the world. Sites and farms participating in the project will create a valuable database on different regional cultivation traditions, regional seed varieties and traction methods and enable deep networking on an international level, raising awareness and public interest in agriculture, its historical implications for the present and the future of food production.

How cities will survive and thrive post-COVID is a question on a lot of people’s minds. Today’s guest has been thinking about the future of cities since before the pandemic and has continued that work as the world grapples with this latest shock to the system. Mac McComas is the senior program manager of the Johns Hopkins University 21st century cities initiative – an effort aimed at providing cities with up-to-date economic information and analysis to help build a more sustainable future.

COVID-19 has changed all of our lives. It is a defining moment for this generation – and for American history – which means that the Smithsonian has made it a priority for collecting and interpreting for future generations. How we will remember this moment is something as a historian I’ve often thought about – and a reason I wanted to sit down with an expert at the Smithsonian who is focused on that very question. On this week’s PreserveCast, we’re sitting down with Dr. Alexandra Lord, the Chair of the Chair Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to discuss how that institution is working to capture this moment in history. Dr. Alexandra Lord is an accomplished historian of medicine and health and is a leader in the effort to document COVID – a perfect guest as we approach the two-year anniversary of the onset of the pandemic.

Alexandra Lord is chair of the Division of Medicine and Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. In this role, she oversees a division with over 100,000 objects, ranging from a Revolutionary War surgical kit to Bill Nye’s lab coat, and seeks to promote a better understanding of the history of medicine and science. As a historian, Lord’s research interests include public health history, how diseases related to women and children have been understood, and the intersections between cultural taboos and medicine. Previously, she was branch chief of the National Park Service, supervising the national preservation program, and a historian in the US Public Health Service.

Learn more at: https://americanhistory.si.edu/profile/1185

Learn more about the Smithsonian’s COVID collection at: https://www.si.edu/object/collecting-covid-19-pandemic-perspectives%3Ayt_RSv2RMrofMY

As a part of our historic foods series – where we’re diving into preserving some of the most iconic foods and brands, we sat down with pizza historian Alexander Hughes to discuss his work chronicling the history of pizza in the United States and Canada and what is being done to preserve this slice of our history. Pizza, history and preservation are three of my favorite things – and it’s rare that they come together under one PreserveCast episode – but that’s what we’ve got in store this week; a topic and conversation made even sweeter by the fact that it is set in my hometown of Buffalo, New York where pizza historian Alexander Hughes conducted much of his research.

Get ready for a big bite of food history on this week’s PreserveCast.

Alexander Hughes is a sixth year PhD Candidate in the Department of History at York University.  His soon to be defended dissertation, “Lake Effect Pizza: Pizza Culture and Consumption in Toronto, Ontario and Buffalo, New York 1945-1990” explores the commodification of pizza in two regional cities.  He served as the Curator of the History of Pizza Exhibit at the Canadian Pizza Museum. He has a Masters from Wilfrid Laurier University, where his thesis examined representations of US History in Disneyland Park.  His research interests include postwar Canada and the United States, urban, food, business, and cultural history. 

Learn more at: https://mralexhughes.com/

On this episode of PreserveCast, Natalie Henshaw of the Campaign for Historic Trades is talking with Mae Bowley of Re:Purpose Savannah in our first ever trades takeover! Join us as Natalie and Mae discuss all things historic trades.

Mae Bowley moved to Savannah in 2015. Out of a desire to learn more about the charming and mysterious city, she started taking classes in Historic Preservation and Restoration at Savannah Technical College. When she encountered Emergent Structures (parent organization of Re:Purpose Savannah) in 2018, she fell in love. She was an avid volunteer for six months, and was then hired on as Assistant Executive Director. In 2019 Mae took over as Executive Director after her predecessor, Scott Crotzer.

Established in 1969, the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture is the nation’s first-ever ethnic commission and has a 50-year track record of exploring, researching, commemorating and preserving important places associated with the African American history of the Old Line State. On this week’s PreserveCast, we’re talking with Chanel Compton, the Executive Director of the Commission, about their work and the exciting future of African American preservation in Maryland and beyond.

The Commission is the oldest ethnic commission in the nation and doesn’t just talk about preserving history – it directly invests millions of dollars in brick-and-mortar projects across the state. It’s a Maryland story with national implications and one we had to bring to PreserveCast.

Chanel Compton is inspired and passionate about her role as Executive Director for the Banneker-Douglass Museum (BDM) and Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (MCAAHC). She also currently serves as Board Chair of the Prince George’s African American Museum and Cultural Center and board member to Afro Charities, Maryland Humanities and Future History Now. Compton has been a life-long supporter of museums; stating, “A museum can be such a powerful place. As a young person, it was my initial visit to museums and galleries that opened my eyes and mind to new perspectives, cultures, and history. African American museums are instrumental in inspiring a new generation of leaders and innovators because it is a place of empowerment, of learning, and a place of individual and collective transformation.” As Executive Director of BDM and MCAAHC, Compton is dedicated to serving arts communities and artists in Maryland. She has a home and art studio in Baltimore, Maryland.