Historic Preservation Projects

I worked on the Chapman-Singleton House project with Abigail Coomes, an MTSU Ph.D. candidate, Amy NeeSmith, an MTSU MA Graduate, and Dr. Meggan McCarthy, an MTSU Ph.D. Graduate. I worked with Meggan to document the objects within the house by photographing all the items and creating a floor plan. I worked on research and preservation assessments with Amy and Abigail. The items I completed included the 1873 Chickering Grand Square Piano and the A-100 Edison Diamond Disc Phonograph. I also created an Excel spreadsheet that included all the Vivyal records and specific overviews for the books that were categorized as a "unique collection" in the house. I completed the research on Claire Singleton individually, as she was the individual who decorated the house and used this history in the overview of the history of the house. 

While working at the Addison Museum, I worked individually on Addison Buchanan's life history. For the rest of the project, Amy NeeSmith, MTSU MA Graduate, and I worked on the museum layout and offered artifact suggestions and new layout plans for the first and second floors. We worked with the Buchanan Log House committee to narrow down the interpretive panel themes inside and outside the Addison Museum. We discussed the different paneling options for the committee and split the panel work evenly. I worked on the interpretive panels for the "Addison Family History" and "Civil War in Davidson County." The completed plan has been used to clean and organize the space slowly. 

I worked on the West Gaines School project with Paul Springer, an MTSU MA Student, and DeLisa Minor Harris, an MTSU Ph.D. candidate, in the Seminar on Historic Preservation. We visited the school, photographed the property, took measurements of the building, and noted what the West Gaines School committee was looking for in the project. I worked on the "Preservation and Assessment" section of the Heritage Development Plan. Within this section, I noted the inventory within the school and the best practices for maintaining the artifacts that were there. I discussed different artifact displays, labels, and the collection environment needs in the artifact section. I did note that a collection policy should be put in place but did highlight what to keep from the items within the school currently and what would be okay to weed. I then followed up by discussing the need for preservation within the school and the imminent recommendation before going through and giving detailed measurements and assessments of each room and completing a floor plan of the building. 

During MayMester, I traveled with Dr. West and my Current Issues in Public History Practice class to Alabama for different projects, including the Shiloh Rosenwald School in Macon County, AL. Here, I assisted with the preservation of the space by installing UV filters on all of the windows to help preserve the items and exhibits in the space. I also assisted with the wall installation of the community quilt in the side exhibit room.

During MayMester, I traveled with Dr. West and my Current Issues in Public History Practice class to Alabama for different projects, including the First Baptist Church (Brick-a-Day Church), where I worked with Victoria Peck, a MTSU MA Graduate, and Tara Salvati, a MTSU MA Student, to measure and photograph the middle section of the church. We then split the work evenly between us, and I focused on the written detailed measurements of the pews within this section. We added our sections to the rest of the classes and submitted the information to Dr. West and the Center for Historic Preservation to use in the National Register Nomination. 

During MayMester, I traveled with Dr. West and my Current Issues in Public History Practice class to Alabama for different projects, including the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Macon County, AL. Here, we individually documented and photographed all the preservation issues observed within the cemetery, including overgrowth and ground erosion. When we finished our observations, we submitted our photographs to be used in a later project and discussed different preservational plans that could be implemented within the cemetery. We each wrote a plan section and submitted it to Dr. West and the Center for Historic Preservation.