The University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation has awarded the 2010 Historic Preservation Book Prize to “The California Missions: History, Art and Preservation” by Edna E. Kimbo and Julia G. Costello, with Tevvy Ball.
“The California Missions: History, Art and Preservation” offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to California’s missions. The work, published in 2009 by Getty Publications under the imprint of the Getty Conservation Institute, weaves together multiple narratives and integrates history, architecture, archaeology, art history, iconography and conservation.
“This book exemplifies multifaceted preservation, going beyond history by setting the missions in a modern context and looking at physical exploration and conservation,” said Andréa Livi Smith, jury chair and director of UMW’s Center for Historic Preservation. “More importantly, the volume engages the changing role, challenges, conundrums and philosophies of preservation. It connects the philosophical to the tangible, using the missions as case studies of current best practices in preservation. The jury particularly commends the authors for presenting the synthesis front-and-center, while providing the rich catalogue of missions at the end of the book. Beyond its merit as the definitive resource regarding California’s missions, this book is a gold-standard in demonstrating the value of historic preservation to the public. As one juror said: ‘it has coffee-table appeal and scholarly depth.’ ”
The center awards the Historic Preservation Book Prize annually to a book that a jury deems has made the most significant contribution to the intellectual vitality of historic preservation in America. This year, the jury for the $500 prize also included Donald W. Linebaugh, director of the Historic Preservation Program for the University of Maryland; Ellen Litwicki, professor of history for State University of New York at Fredonia; Mary O’Neil, associate planner and coordinator for the Certified Local Government Program for the City of Burlington, Vt.; and Michael Spencer, assistant professor of Historic Preservation at Mary Washington.
Entries may come from any of the disciplines that relate to the theory or practice of historic preservation. To be eligible for the 2011 prize, a book must be first available in the United States between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2010.
Established in 1980, the Center for Historic Preservation is a research and public outreach organization affiliated with the UMW department of historic preservation. The center sponsors lectures, seminars, workshops and conferences for students and faculty in the department of historic preservation, and offers programs for the public.
For more information, contact Smith at alsmith@umw.edu or (540) 654-1316.
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