Community-Centered Preservation
The Center works with communities across the state and nation to preserve and interpret their historical assets. Staff and students conduct field work with community partners and then create National Register nominations, historic structure reports, and heritage development plans, among other resources, to guide preservation and interpretation. Examples of our project work include the Parker's Chapel Missionary Baptist Church and Cemetery National Register Nomination, the Old Cumberland County Courthouse Military Memorial Museum Historic Structure Report, the Amis Farm: 240 Years as a Tennessee Landmark Heritage Development Plan, and the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study Multiple Property Nomination.
The Center is nationally known for its work on documenting the landmarks of the American Civil Rights Movement. Our Selma, Alabama, multiple property nomination has led to numerous other projects documenting significant properties and landscapes. We have also done extensive work on Civil Rights landmarks in Tennessee, including sites in Memphis and Clinton.
We also work with communities that wish to create heritage centers, museums, or traveling exhibits about neglected topics in southern and American history. We have experience in developing indoor and outdoor exhibit panels, museum displays, and interpretive brochures. In addition, our collaborative work to encourage heritage tourism involves a range of projects, including driving and walking tours, regional brochures, and topical guides to historic sites. Recent examples include the Tanner School Exhibition Panels and Historic Dunlap: The Heart of Tennessee's Great Valley: A Walking-Driving Tour.
All of these projects provide invaluable field-training opportunities for our graduate students. Our community-anchored programs in rural counties and African American communities provide an invaluable platform for the training of Graduate Research Assistants in preserving and telling the whole story of the past. They then take our message of reciprocal community engagement to every section of the nation.
For more information about our Community-Centered Preservation Program, please e-mail the Center director at histpres@mtsu.edu.
Recent partners include:
1-615-898-2947
histpres@mtsu.edu
8:30 AM - 4:30 PM
MTSU Box 80
1301 East Main Street, Murfreesboro, TN 37132 USA
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