Preserving the Old Dominion: Historic Preservation and Virginia Traditionalism - Hardcover

Lindgren, James M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813914507 ISBN 13: 9780813914503

Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 1993

Synopsis

In 1889 tradition-minded women, including many from Virginia's most prominent families, formed the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA), the first state preservation organization in the United States. In Preserving the Old Dominion cultural historian James Lindgren shows how the preservation movement strove to rebuild a revered past upon the foundations of its historical structures.

The APVA's siginificance lies not only in the fact that it played a major role in the resurgance of conservativism in the late nineteenth-century South, but that it fits into a larger American picture where tradition-minded Americans tapped their history- whether imagined or real- to shape their identity.

Preserving the Old Dominion incorporates history, anthropology, architecture, archaeology, religion, and politics; it will be of interest to historians in all fields as well as women's studies scholars.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In 1889 tradition-minded women, including many from Virginia's most prominent families, formed the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities (APVA), the first state preservation organization in the United States. And where better? After all, who else could so readily claim both colonial and Confederate heritage, both Jamestown and the White House of the Confederacy? In Preserving the Old Dominion cultural historian James Lindgren shows how the preservation movement strove to rebuild a revered past upon the foundations of its historic structures. While vividly capturing entertaining incidents - white-gloved pilgrimages, a Richmond costume ball, even a search for a Jamestown Rock to set back those arriviste New Englanders - and introducing battling (often with each other) preservationists, Lindgren also explores the serious consequences of these sometimes amusing efforts. He shows how the reinvention of the past shaped contemporary Virginia and the South. In a very real sense the battle between North and South was replayed at the end of the nineteenth century in a contest to control the nation's past. The AVPA's significance lies not only in the fact that it played a major role in the resurgence of conservatism in the late nineteenth-century South, but that it fits into a larger American picture where tradition-minded Americans tapped their history - whether imagined or real - to shape their identity. Preserving the Old Dominion incorporates history, anthropology, architecture, archaeology, religion, and politics; it will be of interest to historians in all fields as well as women's studies scholars.

About the Author

James M. Lindgren is Associate Professor of History at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0813914507
• ISBN 13: 9780813914503
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 316