Past Conference Materials
2020 Old Line State Webinars
UGRR Research 201: Researching and Writing for NPS Network to Freedom Program
RECORDED: November 18, 2020, 1PM-2:30PM EST
Because of its clandestine and harrowing nature, verifying Underground Railroad sites is a difficult task. The National Park Service’s Network to Freedom is a national cohort of historic sites, research centers, and tourism programs that have proven their authenticity through scholarly research. The Network to Freedom offers a framework to research African American heritage sites and opens up opportunities for collaboration, grants, and collective interpretation and marketing.
Maryland is a destination for heritage tourism related to the Civil War, slavery, and the Underground Railroad. The 200th Anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s birth into slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland is 2022. The project partners would like to see 100 NTF sites in Maryland by 2022 as a milestone in illuminating this difficult and important history.
This webinar is an effort to support researchers, organizations, historic sites, to critically research their history, including potential Underground Railroad history, and determine if NTF is a good fit. Sites on the NTF can range from historical societies with robust genealogical collections to waterways associated with acts of self-emancipation.
Attendees will learn about: Resources for Underground Railroad, slavery, and African American history research in Maryland; Nominating a site, resource, or heritage tourism program to the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom program; Potential grant sources for research or preservation work at African American heritage sites in Maryland, including grant opportunities, only for designated NTF sites; leveraging a Network to Freedom designation for heritage tourism (interpretation and/or marketing) support from the State Department of Tourism Development.
Cemetery Conservation: What’s Being Done Around the State?
OCTOBER 15, 2020, 1PM-2PM EST
Cemeteries are present in every community and are rich sources of history. Some are active, some have caretakers, and some have deteriorated or lost monuments. The challenge of preserving cemeteries goes beyond the work done on individual sites to the need for broader understanding of the scope of cemeteries to aid planning efforts. This session will review the work done by the State Highway Administration and Preservation Maryland to identify and document cemeteries around the state and the work in Anne Arundel County to create a documentation and mapping tool to assist planners in that county.
Retrofitting Post-War Communities: Balancing Preservation & Use
OCTOBER 21, 2020, 2:30PM-3:45PM EST
America’s post-war communities are also now historic communities. What are the challenges in adapting these car-focused communities to a greener future? This session will challenge participants to examine these communities including an examination of the issues that arise when juggling their unique histories and layouts with more modern planning goals.
What Is In A Name: Preservation District or Conservation District? Case Study from Brunswick, Maryland
SEPTEMBER 22, 2020, 1PM-2PM EST
The City of Brunswick is undertaking an initiative to create protections for its historic community in the form of a Conservation District. This session will walk through what a conservation district is, how it works to protect historic communities, the process Brunswick went through, and the lessons learned.
Preserving Difficult/Authentic History Along the Underground Railroad
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2020, 1:00PM-2:30PM
Given the illegal nature of its operations, sites of the Underground Railroad across the United State were often hidden and secret. That necessity now presents a challenge to preservationists dedicated to identifying, preserving, and interpreting these important histories where they happened. Speakers for this session include Dr. Kate Clifford Larson, author and historian, Heather Ersts, Outreach & Partnership Coordinator for the Maryland Department of Tourism Development, and Dennis A. Doster, Ph.D., Director of the M-NCPPC Black History Program.
Increasing Participation in the Planning Process
THursday, AUGUST 13, 2020, 1PM-2:30PM EST
The municipal planning process can intimidating and inequitable, but many of the most critical decisions that impact a community are made in the planning process. This free webinar with Q&A hosted by Preservation Maryland on August 13, 2020 explored ways to demystify the planning process with the goal of broader engagement for all citizens by examining how people interact with the process and how the process interacts with them – and what can be improved in the short and long term. Speakers for this session are Stephanie Smith, Assistant Director, Equity, Engagement and Communications, City of Baltimore, Department of Planning, and Allie O’Neill of the Neighborhood Design Center.
Historic Preservation/Self Preservation
Thursday, July 9, 2020, 1PM-2PM EST
Speakers for this session are Chanel Compton, Executive Director of the Banneker-Douglass Museum and Reggie Turner, Western Maryland Community Development Corporation.
Among perceptions of the preservation movement is that the field is only interested in a narrow conception of history. This idea is rooted in a solid historical bias, but over the past several years, there have been lots of progress in ensuring that not only are more diverse stories are told, but that places of significance to communities historically left out of the preservation discussion are getting the funds needed to ensure their survival. This session will discuss the work of the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture to address the needs of historic sites significant to Maryland’s African American communities and Commissioner Reggie Turner will discuss his work, in partnership with Preservation Maryland, to revitalize Hagerstown’s historic Johnathan Street neighborhood.
SESSION RECAP & VIDEO RECORDING
The Next Frontier of Preservation: The Moon
Monday, July 20, 2020, 1PM-2PM EST
Speakers for this free webinar are Michelle Hanlon, Co-Founder and President of For All Moonkind, and Teasel Muir-Harmony, Curator of the Apollo program at the National Air and Space Museum.
Preservation on Earth is made up of a variety of laws and regulations that vary based on country, state, or municipality. How do we approach a preservation project that is a couple hundred thousand miles away from the regulations found on Earth? As with all preservation projects, the work of preserving the lunar landing sites presents questions that preservationists routinely grapple with including how to balance preservation and growth in a sustainable way. On the moon, protection of the sites and the lunar surface at large is faced with challenges of competing interests from continued exploration and commercial enterprises. The question of preservation on the moon invites preservationists to ask questions about how we would want to craft regulations if there were no existing statutes and even why we choose what to preserve.
SESSION DETAILS & VIDEO RECORDING
Old Line State Summit 2019
Old Line State Summit 2018
The 2018 Old Line State Summit was held at the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation in partnership with the University of Maryland and the Maryland Association of Historic District Commissions. All 2018 Old Line State Summit conference sessions are now available on demand on our YouTube playlist or by clicking the session title below! These videos are the perfect resource to check out a session that you missed, or to jot down a specific name or fact, or to share a compelling session with your colleagues. Please use and share this resource.
Visit Preservation Maryland on YouTube
Old Line State Summit 2017
Thank you to all of our speakers, sponsors, and attendees for your participation in the Old Line State Summit on July 12, 2017 in Annapolis at the U.S. Naval Academy. Many of the sessions have been recorded and presentations made available as a free resource to the preservation community.