I regret that it has not been mentioned here before, but the College of Charleston has entered into a partnership with the HVA (Historic Vehicle Association) to develop a program “with the goal of developing an academic partner to teach and publish scholarly research on this dimension of historic preservation.”
The College’s Historic Preservation & Community Planning Program began it’s partnership with HVA last year and will be hosting the President of HVA, Mark Gessler, on campus on September 26, 2016, for a lecture entitled “Why We Need a National Register for Automobiles Now.” This lecture is free and open to the public.
The program is also hosting a conference at the Historic Vehicle Association Research Laboratory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in October. That conference “Driving History – Putting Preservation on the Road” is the first international academic event of its kind known to have taken place in North America. The event is bringing together scholars, practitioners, hobbyists, students, among others, who are interested in the history and preservation of motor vehicle heritage. At the conference, we hope to exchange ideas and learn from one other about how the preservation of motor vehicle heritage can be made a more centrist part of the historic preservation field in respect to both tangible material culture and intangible traditions.
A few friends of the site are involved with the program, and we hope to have much more in the future. So stay tuned!
Michael Carnell is the editor and founder of the Just British Online Motoring Magazine. As a lifelong British car enthusiast, he has owned or driven British cars of all ages from Austins and MGs to Jaguars and Triumphs. He currently owns a 1966 Vanden Plas Princess 1100 and a 1977 MGB. But there is always room for more - no matter what his wife says.
