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The Whitehill Report on Professional and Public Education for Historic Preservation
The Whitehill Report on Professional and Public Education for Historic Preservation was submitted 15 April 1968 to the Trustees of the National Trust for Historic Preservation by the Committee on Professional and Public Education for Historic Preservation, Walter Muir Whitehill, Chairman. Note: This copy of the Report was scanned from a manuscript provided by John Fugelso of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. It is used with permission of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
III. Publications
Publications on various levels are essential to both professional and public education. On the professional level they are necessary both for the training of architects and craftsmen, for many details in restoration are often incorrectly carried out for lack of available precedent. It is thus desirable that case histories of carefully executed restorations should be published, with full documentation. During restoration, details of construction normally invisible will often be revealed. There is thus great merit in printing, whenever possible, a photographic record of buildings before, during and after major restorations, accompanied by drawings and commentary. The National Park Service, Colonial Williamsburg, and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities have much evidence of this kind in their files. A precedent for such a series is the Williamsburg Research Studies, in which selected reports from the files of the Research Department of Colonial Williamsburg are modestly printed in offset and distributed by the University Press of Virginia.
In meticulousness of investigation and thoroughness of reporting, archaeology has much to teach historic preservation. Such reports as John L. Cotter, Archaeological Excavations at Jamestown, Virginia, (National Park Service Archaeological Research Series, No.4), Ivor Noel Hume Excavation at Rosewall, Gloucester County, Virginia, 1957-1959 (United States National Museum Bulletin 225) and R.G. Montgomery, Watson Smith and John Otis Brew, Franciscan Awatovi (Papers of the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, vol. XXXVI) are pertinent examples for study, for the preservationist has the same professional obligation as the archaeologist to report on and publish his findings.
If a suitable format were devised, and one or more of such case histories of restorations issued, preferably as a joint publication of the National Trust and the organization responsible for the restoration, a useful precedent would be established.
In connection with the training of craftsmen, a series of reprints of rare early books and pamphlets would prove useful. The committee finds that a number of commercial publishers, such as the Da Capo Press, Benjamin Blom, Inc., Century Books, Dover Publications, Inc., Gregg Press, and Funk and Wagnalls have already published or announced plans for reprinting works of this type. It would be useful for the National Trust to keep close watch upon reprints that would be of service to craftsmen, and issue lists, from time to time, of those that are available.
One could wish that it would be possible to achieve American equivalents of such reminiscent English books as Walter Rose's The Village Carpenter and George Sturt's The Wheelwright's Shop, published by the Cambridge University Press a generation ago. Even if the time for this has passed, there is still the obligation to encourage the preparation of all possible reference books and textbooks on the nature and use of early American Construction materials and craftsmanship. The National Trust should be alert to encourage and assist any efforts in this direction, and to see that any pertinent studies achieved by other Institutions are promptly brought to the attention of persons engaged in historic preservation.
These are interim suggestions concerning professional publications. Others will undoubtedly develop if the proposed Office of Professional Education and Training Programs is established in the National Trust. It is essential that all professional publications of the Trust meet exacting standards set by the Committee of Professional Consultants, for great harm can be done by "do-it-yourself" pamphlets that are compiled to meet some seemingly pressing need.
The Committee s views concerning National Trust Publications of more general interest are included in the preceding section on public education.
Introduction
I. Professional Education for Preservation and Restoration
A. Architectural Curricula
B. Conservation of the Traditional Building Crafts
II. Public Education for Historic Preservation and Restoration
III. Publications
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