Grants and Contracts Details
Description
Whose History Are We Preserving?: Mapping the Gaps of the National Register of Historic Places
from Racial and Ethnic Historical Perspectives
Abstract
The challenge of preservation and access to be addressed in this project is the underrepresentation of
buildings and sites associated with minority groups in listings on the National Register of Historic Places
(the Register), the official federal list of buildings and sites considered important in American history. The
proposed project will quantify and investigate the reasons for underrepresentation of minority groups and
associated histories. While it is well known that minority histories are grossly underrepresented on
heritage lists from the municipal to the national level (Avrami, 2020), no accurate up-to-date data is
available on how large the discrepancies are and how they are distributed across racial and ethnic
categories. The first objective of this project is, therefore, to establish the extent of the problem. Using a
computer-based keyword mining process with a computer code automatically searching over 95,000
listings (i.e., PDF files of approved applications downloaded from the National Park Service website), we
categorized the registered sites into different racial and ethnic historical areas in an effort to map
preservation gaps against historical and current census data. The second objective is to examine the
reasons why discrepancies exist and identify possible solutions using the state of Kentucky as a case
based on community stakeholder and preservation expert interviews and policy and procedural document
analysis related to the Register. We envision the outcomes of the project to be the mapping of preservation
efforts based on racial and ethnic categories and development of a model based on empirical research that
can be implemented through the programs of the Kentucky Heritage Council, a partner of this project.
Through these outcomes, this project aims to make Register listings for KY more inclusive and establish a
model that can be replicated in other states and territories.
Status | Active |
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Effective start/end date | 6/1/23 → 5/31/25 |
Funding
- National Endowment for the Humanities: $74,999.00
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