The 2011 Historic Preservation Book Prize, sponsored by the University of Mary Washington Center for Historic Preservation, has been awarded to Line, Shade and Shadow by Lois Olcott Price. Oak Knoll Press, HES & DE GRAAF Publishers, and the Winterthur Museum published Line, Shade and Shadow in 2010. Line, Shade and Shadow is both a beautifully illustrated exploration of the evolution of architectural drawing craft and an innovative discussion of the preservation of these drawings. In light of the increasing reliance on computers and computer-aided techniques, this volume provides a timely and welcome reminder of a fading craft. This connection to the history of architectural drawings’ brings to mind the original intent of architects and builders. Drawing is a creative act and in architectural drawings one can see not only the record of the buildings and landscapes but also the creative process that brought them about. In addition, architectural drawings can be the last vestige of … [Read more...]
Chemistry and Historic Preservation: A Collaborative Research Project on Bricks and Mortar
The blog Between the Cracks details two undergraduate students’ work as researchers partaking in the Summer Science Institute program at the University of Mary Washington. Sarah Smith, majoring in Chemistry, and Chris Young, majoring in Historic Preservation, spent the last 8 weeks of the ten week program researching and testing brick and mortar samples from some of Fredericksburg’s most historic structures. The samples extracted from each building underwent a series of tests to determine the elemental concentrations of calcium, sulfur, iron, silica, and magnesium. With this information, Sarah hopes to link the bricks with kilns used in 18th and 19th century Fredericksburg. Chris aims to scientifically distinguish the different periods of construction at the Mary Washington House, ca. 1772. The re-evaluation of building materials can add to the historic descriptions of the buildings as well as aid in the remediation techniques used in the preservation of historic buildings. The blog … [Read more...]
First Undergraduate Historic Preservation Education Symposium
The Center for Historic Preservation hosted the First Undergraduate Historic Preservation Education Symposium on June 10-12 at the University of Mary Washington. The symposium brought together faculty from undergraduate preservation institutions from across the United States. Topics of discussion were focused on curriculum, pedagogy, and student placement. There are many programs teaching historic preservation in America, the vast majority of them at the graduate level. However, although there are only eight undergraduate programs, they graduate many more students. Therefore, understanding the specific issues in teaching historic preservation to undergraduates is of particular interest. Who are these students? How and what are they taught? What are the emerging issues in teaching this population? This was the topic of the symposium, which was the first meeting of its kind. It served to create a community and start a conversation so that preservation educators can learn from each … [Read more...]
Fredericksburg Research Resources
Dr. Gary Stanton of the Department of Historic Preservation maintains a website of research resources regarding Fredericksburg. This trove includes city directories dating back to 1885, indexes of newspapers, of wills and deeds, historic census lists, and many other historic resources. Most recently, Dr. Stanton has added an index of surviving building permits from 1938-1960. Please use this great resource! … [Read more...]
Historic Buildings of Fredericksburg Website
The Historic Preservation Planning Laboratory of Spring 2010 designed and implemented a website! The Historic Buildings of Fredericksburg database was created in order to provide a central depository of information about buildings in Fredericksburg that had previously been scattered, and make it available to the public at large. The database was created for the Center for Historic Preservation at the University of Mary Washington in the Spring of 2010 by a preservation planning course taught by Smith. The grunt work was done by the students: Chelsea Corcoran, Bill Pieper, Sarah Moore, Megan Hall, Bridget Travers, and Helen Dinndorf. Please check it out, and enjoy! … [Read more...]
2010 Book Prize Winner Announced!
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 … [Read more...]
