PreserveCast

On this fourth edition of PreserveCast Conversations: The Professor and the Practitioner, a new monthly feature of PreserveCast, co-hosts Nicholas Redding and Dr. Whitney Martinko explore the trends, topics and issues that are making headlines in the world of preservation this month. They’re covering a lot of ground in today’s conversation on preservation and the issues that matter. For regular listeners, also, be sure to send any questions you have about this episode or questions you’d like answered in next month’s conversation to [email protected].

Dr. Whitney Martinko is an associate professor of History at Villanova University, where she teaches classes about the early United States, environmental history and sustainability, and material culture. She also directs the graduate program in public history. She earned her AB in History from Harvard College and her MA and PhD in History from the University of Virginia. She lives in West Philadelphia. Learn more about Martinko and her work at https://www.whitneymartinko.com/

Saving places requires a variety of tools and skillsets – including an understanding of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. It sounds dull – but it’s a tool everyone who cares about historic places should know about and get involved in – because it can save places and use the loss of historic resources to fuel preservation elsewhere. On this week’s PreserveCast, Jacqueline Drayer, a 106-specialist is leading us down the road to 106 awareness.

Connecting people to places is the work of preservationists everywhere – and on this week’s episode we’re talking with the creative minds behind Maryland Road Trips, a new site dedicated to encouraging place-based tourism. It’s a story rooted in Maryland, but one with lessons for preservationists and historians across the globe.

PreserveCast is a nationwide podcast – exploring topics in history, preservation and place from all around the world – but our heart will always be in Maryland where we’re based and produced. So, this week, we’re talking with Laura Rennie, the editorial manager of Maryland Road Trips to see how one new site is working to connect people to place – with lessons learned along the way for anyone listening who cares to do the same.

Laura Rennie’s curiosity and inquisitive nature leads her toward finding the story unseen. With a background in print journalism, she explores the unknown both with ease and genuine interest. At Maryland Road Trips, a Postern Publishing publication, Laura approaches her work like any seasoned adventurer would; by dusting off the path less traveled and looking where others might not think to look. After all, everyone has a story to tell and Laura has what it takes to tell it.

Visit Maryland Road Trips at: www.marylandroadtrips.com

Preservation without funding is just good intentions. That’s why people like Merrill Hoopengardner and her team at the National Trust Community Investment Corporation are so integral to the future of this work. Right now, they’re working on big changes to federal funding for preservation – a timely and critical issue we knew had to be on PreserveCast.

Merrill Hoopengardner may not be a household name in preservation – but she should be. Merrill is the President and CEO of the National Trust Community Investment Corporation and is part of an effort to vastly improve the nation’s historic tax credit – the federal government’s largest investment in preservation. As President of NTCIC, Merrill directs fundraising and acquisition opportunities, develops and implements overall strategy and new lines of business for the company, and coordinates governing board/staff relations.

On this week’s PreserveCast, listeners have an opportunity to take action and make a difference and Merrill is leading the charge.

On this week's episode of PreserveCast, we are excited to be talking with Kara Harris, a blogger, historian and Maryland food lover. Kara Harris is the blogger and historian behind "Old Line Plate," a fantastic Maryland based food history website that I personally love, and something that I knew we had to bring to this week's episode of PreserveCast. The blog "Old Line Plate," a play on Maryland's historic state nickname "Old Line State," seeks to tell the story of Maryland's historic foodways and cooking traditions.

Let's sink our teeth into today's episode of PreserveCast!

Yep, you guessed it, I connected with Christina on Twitter – where she learned about a historic rehabilitation project Preservation Maryland was undertaking. Since then, I’ve become a huge fan of her work and the way in which she expertly weaves history and food together – two of my biggest passions. For anyone with an appetite, this is the interview for you.

Christina Tkacik has spent her career telling important stories – and has a talent for weaving history and food together as the dining reporter for the Baltimore Sun. From crabcakes to sno-balls to log cabins, Christina is doing her part to preserve our past in the pages of the Baltimore Sun and is serving up a tasty helping on this week’s PreserveCast. 

Foxfire is the bioluminescence created by some species of fungi present in decaying wood. It is a wonderfully evocative word selected by a teacher and student over 50 years ago to be the title for their new project to document life in the southern Appalachians.

What started initially as a student project has live on for decades and is today an open-air museum and outdoor village with over 20 historic log buildings and the Foxfire Archive, which consists of over 50 years of oral history interviews, images, and video.

With the light of the foxfire marking our path, on this week’s PreserveCast we’re talking with Kami Ahrens, the Assistant Curator for the Foxfire Museum about the special work they’re doing to preserve the past.

On this week’s re-release of PreserveCast, we’re heading back to the brackish marshes of Maryland’s Eastern Shore to talk Tubman, slavery, and freedom.

Few names have become as synonymous with grit, determination, and liberty as Harriet Tubman. A Moses for her people, Tubman has become an almost mythical character who represents the best of the American spirit in the face of incredible suffering and inhumanity. Yet, for many years, she lacked a rigorous and scholarly biography. Today’s guest, Dr. Kate Clifford Larson, addressed that historical inequity and helped bring Harriet’s real story to a new generation.

A two-time Pulitzer Prize winning artist, Bill Mauldin’s cartoons embodied the spirit of the infantryman during World War II before turning his critical pen to those in the political sphere. On this week’s PreserveCast, we’re talking with James Brundage, the curator of the Pritzker Military Museum & Library to explore the preservation of this unique art and how Mauldin’s message still resonates.

 I’ve personally always loved the art of Bill Mauldin – it’s honest, real and sometimes even a little cheeky. In many ways, the art has come to define the GI of World War II and colors our memory of that conflict. That’s why when the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, long-time friends of the podcast, approached us about their new exhibit, I felt it was a story perfect for PreserveCast.

Listen: https://www.preservecast.org/

We all need role models – and we need to see ourselves represented – whether in film, print . . . or in Mattel’s iconic Barbie.

Today’s guest, Despina Stratigakos, Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence at the University at Buffalo, is a writer, historian, and professor. She is the author of three books that explore the intersections of power and architecture. Her most recent book, Where Are the Women Architects? confronts the challenges women face in the architectural profession.

Despina also participated in a fascinating effort to get the Mattel Corporation to give Barbie a career in architecture. It was a study in representation and the future of the field – a story that we’ll detail in miniature and more on this week’s PreserveCast.