One Large Country to Explore

Within this country and its territories, there are 1,230 official Save America’s Treasures projects—official because they have received Save America’s Treasures funding to preserve either a nationally significant structure or collection.

Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March (1965).  Behind
the children, a singing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his
wife, Coretta Scott King.  From the Jack T. Franklin
Photography Collection of the
African American Museum in Philadelphia.

Starting today, Tour America’s History will be embarking upon a six-year tour of these projects.  Upfront, I’ll apologize for the breakneck pace.  But we’ve got 1,230 projects to visit and, by my estimate, we’ll only be able to cover them all if we keep to a schedule of approximately five projects per week.  There’s a lot to see and a lot to learn.

Save America’s Treasures was a U.S. federal government program administered by the National Park Service in partnership with the President’s Council on the Arts and the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.  Beginning with the first competitive round of funding in 1999 and continuing for twelve years, Save America’s Treasures offered matching grants for preservation of historic structures, artifacts, documents, and works of art.

I first became acquainted with the Save America’s Treasures program through my work as Director of Development at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia.  At the Conservation Center, we have been honored to work on 30 Save America’s Treasures projects.  Every one of these projects has been exciting and inspiring.  Through this blog, I hope to learn about 1,200 more exciting and inspiration projects—and, of course, to celebrate the 30 that I already know.

I’ve decided to organize this six-year tour into geographical clusters of six to 15 sites.  In some cases, the cluster will be as small as a city neighborhood.  In other cases (the Alaska cluster comes to mind), the cluster will encompass a vast region.

Our first cluster covers 15 sites in Philadelphia.  I’m arbitrarily starting with Philadelphia because it’s my hometown city and because it allows me to launch the entire series with the preservation of the handwritten draft of the United States Constitution at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.  It feels like an appropriate starting point.

After our swing through Philadelphia, we’ll shoot down to Richmond, Virginia for a tour of their treasures, then off to southern California—an inviting place to visit in mid-February.

I invite you to join me.  It should be fun.

© 2011 Lee Price