Department of Cultural and Historic Preservation

Coordinator: James C. Garman, Ph.D.

The 12th Annual Salve Regina University Conference on Cultural and Historic Preservation
October 23-25, 2008

Digging city’s history
The Boston Globe
June 30, 2005

Kate Descoteaux, a 2003 Salve Regina graduate in cultural and historic preservation, was featured in a Boston Globe photograph to accompany a story on archeology students completing a six-week excavation for artifacts behind the African Meeting House on Beacon Hill in Boston. During the next 18 months, these students, including Descoteaux, will be analyzing their findings, which number more than 70,000 items, at the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.

Cultural and Historic Preservation (CHP) is an interdisciplinary major encompassing architectural history, archival research, historical archaeology and preservation planning. Classes make extensive use of opportunities for hands-on learning in the living laboratories of the Salve Regina campus and the city of Newport.

CHP courses foster skills in the analysis of material culture and the built environment, critical thinking about the discipline, and writing about the relationships between the past and the present. Courses designated with an "L" are laboratory courses requiring active participation in a defined preservation project extending beyond the bounds of the classroom. Summer field schools in archaeology and architectural survey offer adiitional opportunities for students to hone their skills. The CHP program takes an explicitly global approach to preservation; students are encouraged to participate in International Study as part of their education. The program supports the Mission of Salve Regina through active faculty and student engagement with issues of social justice in historic preservation. Myriad opportunities exist for students to work on preservation projects within the local community.

Preservation Planning

Preservation students at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House

Historic Preservation Planning supports the protection, documentation and preservation of cultural and historic resources. Topics of study focus on how information is gathered and analyzed, how the political arena can support or undermine preservation choices, and how history can be used to make educated choices about the physical environment. The CHP program teaches students to consider multiple and often conflicting viewpoints on the value of historic and cultural resources. Students are also encouraged to become involved in local preservation projects in order to experience how preservation planning guides actions taken today.

Archaeology

Wood-Pratt privy (ca. 1730), excavated in the summer of 2001

Archaeology involves the recovery, analysis, documentation and interpretation of the material remains of past cultures and societies. Topics of study range from the question of human origins to the study of colonial life in Newport to an analysis of modern cultural practices. The CHP program helps students develop an understanding of archaeological methodology that is grounded in cultural and historic study. Students can also gain hands-on training through the Archaeological Field School, offered each summer.

Architectural History

Salve Regina's McAuley Hall, home of the CHP program

Architectural History examines the history of the built environment as it has influenced building, engineering, interior design, landscape patterns and decorative arts. Topics of study not only include great monuments of the past, temples, churches, houses and gardens, but also the outstanding vernacular traditions of New England villages, farms, cottages and objects. The CHP program teaches students the visual language of architecture while challenging them with different, often opposing, interpretations of historic structures. Students are also encouraged to undertake primary architectural research as a way of gaining knowledge about the built environment of today.