Advisory Council on Historic Preservation

The ACHP celebrates National Volunteer Month this April supporting the tireless volunteers who help keep America’s historic places open for the public to learn from and enjoy year round. One such group of volunteers works at Newark, New Jersey’s famous Essex County Branch Brook Park.

The park was named a Preserve America Steward in 2012 for the volunteer effort aimed at restoring and preserving this historic park, conceived of by legendary landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead Sr. and designed by his sons. Branch Brook Park, America’s first county park dating  to 1895, provides 360 acres of green space in one of New Jersey’s most densely populated cities.

Terry Guen, FASLA, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation expert member and  landscape architect, principal & founder of Chicago-based Terry Guen Design Associates.
 

As Women’s History Month winds down, the exhibit, “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence,” will open March 29 at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. The building is one of Washington’s oldest, opened in 1836 to house the U.S. Patent Office. Red Cross founder Clara Barton worked in the National Historic Landmark as a clerk to the Patent Office commissioner.

By Robert G. Stanton, Expert Member, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and former National Park Service Director

February is African American History Month, an opportunity to pause in our busy schedules to show gratitude for the contributions our ancestors made, through their courage, sacrifice, leadership, and hard work, that advanced the liberties and freedoms we enjoy today. Over the course of this month, we can educate a wider audience about those contributions. African American History Month not only helps African Americans understand their own heritage but gives all Americans a better understanding of the role of African Americans in our nation’s rich and diverse history.

In 1871, Congress designated August 26 as Women’s Equality Day, commemorating the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, granting women the right to vote. There are several significant historic sites throughout the U.S. linked to the women’s suffrage movement. Women’s Rights National Historical Park in Seneca Falls, NY, encompasses several historic buildings associated with the first Women’s Rights Convention, July 19 and 20, 1848.