Antoinette G. van Zelm, Ph.D.

Assistant Director at the Center for Historic Preservation

antoinette.vanzelm@mtsu.edu

Dr. Antoinette G. van Zelm provides research, writing, and editing assistance to organizations that partner with the Center. She administers the Tennessee Century Farms program and writes short histories of all of the newly certified farms. Dr. van Zelm works with the CHP’s graduate research assistants on projects and edits the Center’s blog, Southern Rambles. She is the Regional Grants Supervisor for the Teaching with Primary Sources Southern Region, which is administered by the Center. The program promotes the effective use of primary sources from the Library of Congress in a variety of educational settings and offers grants of up to $25,000.

Dr. van Zelm received her Ph.D. in American History from the College of William & Mary, completing her dissertation on the transition from slavery to freedom among women in Virginia during and after the Civil War. She is active in the Southern Association for Women Historians (SAWH) and served as president in 2023. She has written about the transition from slavery to freedom in both Tennessee and Virginia in several publications. She has also presented and published her research on Tennessee women’s involvement in the Woman’s Relief Corps, the women’s auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic. Currently, Dr. van Zelm is working on a book that will include transcriptions of three diaries written by women in Murfreesboro during and after the Civil War.