Episodes: page 7

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. 

Pretzels. Few words are as synonymous with snacking – and they are ubiquitous on tables across the nation, no matter the region. Today’s guest, Tim Snyder, leads one of America’s oldest pretzel brands – where the history of the twisted treat is almost equally as important as the taste. Connecting food and history is a theme this year on PreserveCast, and this is a great place to start with an icon in the food industry. 

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 Tim Snyder, President of the Julius Sturgis Pretzel company, America’s oldest pretzel bakery, based in historic Lititz, Pennsylvania to talk about preserving the history and charting the future of one of America’s favorite snacks. 

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.

On this episode of PreserveCast, Natalie Henshaw of the Campaign for Historic Trades is talking to Mae Bowley of Re:Purpose Savannah in our first ever trades takeover!

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.

Food is powerful. It has the ability to transcend artificial divisions and to unite – and it can speak to our history and heritage if we’re willing to listen, or think with our tastebuds. For this episode’s guest, using food to tell a story is all a part of his daily work. Brent Rosen is […]

You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen, but do you recall Rankin/Bass – the company behind some of America’s most beloved stop-action holiday films? Our guest, Rick Goldschmidt, does. He’s a historian of Rankin/Bass Productions – the creative team that created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, The Year without a Christmas, and dozens upon dozens more. […]

On this fifth 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 […]

Today we’re speaking with Roland Ennos, author of The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization. More About the Book: As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk […]

Christmas at a historic home normally conjures up images of a roaring Victorian fireplace or perhaps even an early 20th century Christmas with tin toys and pleasant smells coming from the kitchen. But, what about the kitschy charm of the 1970s? On this week’s PreserveCast we’re revisiting with James Etherington, the Director of Kiplin Hall – a historic site in England which interprets the ancestral home of the Calverts, one of Maryland’s earliest and most prominent colonial families – to hear about their very 1970s Christmas and what we can learn from the way we celebrated exactly 50 years ago. 

There are many ways to be a historian – and on this week’s PreserveCast we’re exploring the world of historians for hire – contract historians who do work to help organizations, corporations, agencies and law firms dig deep into history when the stakes are high. 

Blight doesn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of countless decisions, bad policies and disinvestment over decades. Nneka N’namdi is the founder of Fight Blight Baltimore, an economic, environmental, and social justice initiative that is working to address these systemic barriers and challenges to communities in some of the state’s most historic neighborhoods.  N’namdi was […]

Some holidays are so ingrained into our lives, it’s hard to imagine the time before they existed – but Halloween wasn’t always the holiday we know today. On this year’s PreserveCast Spooktacular we’re talking with Lisa Morton. Morton recently published Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, a comprehensive history of one of America’s favorite holidays.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Kara Harris is the blogger and historian behind “Old Line Plate,” a fantastic Maryland based food history website that I personally love, and something I knew we had to bring to this week’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 […]

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 lived on […]