Preservation Maryland

“Interpretation is an art,” said Freeman Tilden, author of Interpreting Our Heritage. “The chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but rather provocation.” As we work to preserve, rehabilitate, and interpret some of the state’s most iconic places and their stories, the Preservation Maryland team visited Gettysburg National Military Park to see how our partners at the National Park Service are doing the same.

Last week the Preservation Maryland team hosted a book release party celebrating Scott Hartwig’s newest book, I Dread the Thought of the Place: The Battle of Antietam and the End of the Maryland Campaign, which sheds light on the visceral experience of the battle and the emotional aftermath for those who survived. It was a great evening with fellow historians, members of the National Park Service (Hartwig is a thirty-four year veteran of the National Park Service and served as Gettysburg’s supervisory park historian for twenty years), researchers, and history lovers.

The Heritage Fund grant program has provided vital funds for preservation projects across Maryland for decades. Now that the FY24 grant cycle is open, Preservation Maryland is again sharing the progress of a past Heritage Fund project: our spring 2022 recipient, the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum for the Martin 404 Airliner Restoration & Painting. The museum was awarded $5,000 for the restoration and painting of the Martin 404 Airliner, specifically the tail rudder and nose.

On the 161st anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history, we’re featuring a few of Antietam’s untold stories and unique layers of history. Follow along with Preservation Maryland’s President and CEO Nicholas Redding as he visits the battlefield, located in Sharpsburg, Maryland.

Central to the ability to tell this story is preservation, which is one of the primary reasons that Preservation Maryland launched its own battlefield preservation program aimed at helping to preserve, rehabilitate, and interpret some of the state’s most iconic places — and to make certain that the stories told are comprehensive and inclusive of their long histories.