Session 1: Historic Real Estate , Market Morality and the Politics of Preservation in the Early United States with author Whitney Martinko, Associate Professor of History, Villanova University
Join the University City Historical Society for a series of book talks highlighting recent works by UCHS members and neighbors.
For our first book talk, Dr. Whitney Martinko will discuss her recently published book, Historic Real Estate: Market Morality and the Politics of Preservation in the Early United States (Penn Press, 2020). Her talk will discuss a wide array of preservation projects undertaken before the preservation of George Washington's Mount Vernon in 1860--the traditional starting point for histories of historic preservation in the United States. In the decades after the American Revolution, a surprising cast of characters tried to secure the permanence of Indigenous earthworks, colonial buildings, battlefields, and family estates across the young nation. In the process, they shaped economic and social principles of capitalism and colonization that endure in preservation to this day.
Dr. Martinko is an associate professor of History at Villanova University. She is a member of UCHS and resides in the Cedar Park neighborhood of West Philadelphia. Ms. Martinko also co-edits book reviews for the Journal of the Early Republic.
https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/16099.html
University City Historical Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.