PreserveCast

Join us in the garden on this week’s PreserveCast as we talk with John Forti about his book, The Heirloom Gardener: Traditional Plants & Skills for the Modern World. John will take us through how he started gardening, why he decided to put pen to paper, and the importance of heirloom and indigenous plants in our gardens. John Forti is an award-winning heirloom specialist, garden historian, eth...

Join us with guest Despina Stratigakos, who participated in a fascinating effort to get the Mattel Corporation to give Barbie a career in architecture. We like to keep things of topical interest here on PreserveCast and with the new Barbie movie out this week, it seemed fitting to revisit this conversation about representation and the future of the field.  We all need role models – and we need to...

Join us on this week’s PreserveCast as we talk with Dr. Jocelyn Imani, the National Director for the Black History and Culture program at Trust for Public Land. Dr. Imani will discuss the importance in creating shared spaces that are more relevant and accessible to all populations. All that and more! Dr. Jocelyn Imani is a storyteller, educator, and community builder with over a decade of experien...

On this week’s PreserveCast, join us as we talk with Carole Boston Weatherford and her son, Jeffrey Boston Weatherford, about their book Kin: Rooted in Hope. Carole and Jeffrey will share their journey creating this book, set in Talbot County, Maryland, which reimagines Wye House plantation and the nearby all-Black, Reconstruction-era hamlets of Copperville and Unionville, and the research into th...

Join us on this week’s PreserveCast as we talk with Noami Doddington from Consigli Construction. Naomi takes us through her choice to change careers from a high school teacher to historic preservationist. We'll also discuss one of her projects, the Glass House at Menokin, where part of the structure will be preserved in glass. BIO: Naomi Doddington is a Project Manager and Historic Preservationist...

Join us on this week’s PreserveCast as we head back to frontier Indiana where we’ll talk with Michelle Evans, the Domestic Trades Manager at Conner Prairie, one of the largest open air history museums in the nation. Michelle will take us through the background of Conner Prairie and her experience over the past four decades on site as well as Conner’s Prairie’s use of heirloom plants within their 1...

On this week’s PreserveCast join us as we talk with Dr. Roeland Paardekooper about EXARC, a global network of professionals active in archaeological open-air museums and experimental archaeology, ancient technology, and interpretation. Dr. Paardekooper will talk us through this unique field of study and how you can learn traditional skills by engaging with EXARC.   Dr. Roeland Paardekooper serves...

*Emergency Episode* French Quarter with Danielle Del Sol In this special edition of PreserveCast, we are sitting down with a friend of our organization, Danielle Del Sol, the Executive Director at Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans. She talks with us about the proposed changes to the French Quarter governance and the impact it could have to one of the oldest historic districts in the Unit...

Trades Takeover is back! In this episode, Director of Historic Trades Natalie Henshaw speaks with Melanie Weston, one of our panelists for the inaugural American Historic Trades Summit . Held from June 12 – 14, in Providence, Rhode Island, the Summit will develop a network for historic trades training programs, creating a central source of knowledge and resources on how to start, maintain, and pro...

Join us on this week’s PreserveCast as we talk with Dr. Maureen Elgersman Lee about her work at the Bray School Lab at William & Mary. Dr. Lee shares some background on the Williamsburg Bray school that was hidden in plain sight for over 200 years on the William & Mary campus in Virginia, and some of its history as the oldest extant building dedicated to the education of Black children in...

I have been a big fan of Peter Ginn ever since I watched the first episode of Victorian Farm, where he portrayed a Victorian-era farmer in England alongside Ruth Goodman and Alex Langlands. Peter has deftly combined his knowledge of the past with entertainment and is a proud ambassador for preserving historic trades and crafts. In short, he’s the ideal PreserveCast guest. 

On this special edition of PreserveCast we're flipping the script! Normally, our host Nicholas Redding asks the questions and our guests tell us the story. On today's episode Nick will be our storyteller, chronicling one of his first preservation advocacy battles and the hard-won lessons learned that can listeners can heed and use to speak out on behalf of places that matter to their communities. ...

Saving communities and historic places from an increasingly unstable climate takes real action – and thoughtful, well-crafted policy. Maryland State Senator Sarah Elfreth is a national leader on this issue and has helped to craft a new funding source to help communities battle climate change and save historic places. I first met Senator Elfreth outside of a Budget and Taxation hearing to discuss a...

On this week’s PreserveCast we’re diving deep into the technology of preservation with Greg Galer and Taryn Williams about their roles at The Association for Preservation Technology International (APT). We’re talking about how preservationists keep up with changing technology and how those trends, tools and the science of buildings is helping keep our historic structures standing. And, we’ll discu...

What is smart growth and why should preservationists care about it? On this week’s PreserveCast we’re talking with David Adler, an asset manager from David S. Brown Enterprises about transit-oriented development, incentives for smart growth, and how historic preservationists can incentivize better growth in their own communities. All that and more, as we push the boundaries of preservation, on thi...

On this week’s PreserveCast, we’re heading back 250 years to the mid-18th century to talk to Ed Schultz, master farmer of Colonial Williamsburg. We’ve covering a lot of ground in this episode – rich fertile ground – and will take a closer look at what it takes to learn this style of farming and what lessons it holds for the future of sustainable agriculture. We’ll also talk with Ed about his work...

The experiences of hundreds of free and enslaved people of color who witnessed and took part in the Battle of Antietam, one of America’s bloodiest battles, have never been shared in depth until now. Join us on this week’s PreserveCast as we talk with author Dr. Emilie Amt about her book Black Antietam: African Americans and the Civil War. Emilie will give us a glimpse into her book and the African...

On this week’s PreserveCast, we’re heading to the brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay to revisit an episode with Imani Black, founder of Minorities in Aquaculture , a dynamic new organization that is using heritage and history and a host of other innovative tools to develop opportunities for minorities to engage in this growing and sustainable industry. Like many guests, I read about Imani in an...

Once one of the top 10 cities in the United States, Buffalo’s historic Elmwood district could once again be a model for America’s cities. On this week’s PreserveCast, join us as we talk with Clinton Brown, a heritage and project architect, about his book Olmsted’s Elmwood: The Rise, Decline and Renewal of Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood, A Model for America’s Cities. Brown takes us through this Buf...

Join us on this week’s PreserveCast as we talk with Katherine Porter, a design director at Waterhouse Wallhangings. Waterhouse’s collections contain new and old wallpaper designs, including some authentic reproductions, first used in the early days of the US. Join us as we explore how wallpaper has changed since it was first brought to the US, peeking into Waterhouse’s archives, and the difference...

Want to know how sailors used to get their tattoos centuries ago? On this week’s PreserveCast, we will be talking with Owen McGarry a New England tattoo artist who specializes in hand poked tattoos. The stick and poke tattoo method has been performed for thousands of years from sailors to indigenous Americans and Europeans. Owen will walk us through this slow tattooing process and where he gets hi...

One a day keeps the doctor away. Join us on this week’s PreserveCast, as we talk with Tom Brown who is on the search for “Lost” heritage apple varieties. Listen in as Tom shares his decades-long journey to rediscover heritage apples and what it takes to preserve these “Lost” breeds.

One of preservation’s biggest challenges is climate change. On this week’s PreserveCast, we are talking with Benjamin Curran, a 2021 recipient of the Harrison Goodall Fellowship. Curran’s project intended to explore the viability of constructing low-cost open-source sensors for the purpose of increasing the breadth of communities engaged in self-monitoring their susceptibility to sea level rise. J...

On this week’s PreserveCast, we’ll head back to the 19th century to explore the landscapes and sites associated with Frederick Douglass and talk with Jeffrey McGuiness about his photographic journey to document these sites for his new book published by The St. Michael’s Museum, Bear Me Into Freedom: The Talbot County of Frederick Douglass. Jeff McGuiness is a photographer and writer fascinated by...

On this week’s PreserveCast we are talking with Charles Henry the President of the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR), a non-profit organization that works with libraries, cultural institutions, and higher learning communities to improve research, teaching, and learning environments through the digitization and preservation of cultural heritage. Charles will be sharing the threat...