Cultural Resources from the Recent Past Rebecca A. Shiffer VOLUME 16 • NO. 6 hen the National Park Service published its 25th 19 9 3 Anniversary Report on the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, Held in Trust: Preserving America's Historic Places, it put New York City's National Historic Landmark Chrysler Building on the Wcover. By that year, 1991, tens of thousands of buildings across the country were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and Issue nearly two thousand more had been designated National Historic Landmarks. Interestingly, NPS chose the Chrysler Building, a symbol of modernity and of "machine age" technology, to represent the historic buildings the nation holds in trust. Cultural Resources Management The report reviewed the evolution of federal historic preservation Information for programs authorized and Parks, Federal Agencies, expanded by the 1966 act and Indian Tribes, States, Local Governments and the developed in conjunction Private Sector with state, local, tribal, public and private partners. Since an overwhelming majority of preservation efforts have been directed toward 18th- and 19th-century buildings, read­ ers might have expected to see a building from an earlier period pictured on the cover. But everything about the Chrysler Building (1928-1930) proclaims its modernity: the tallest building in the world (albeit for only a few months); in the newest contemporary style, "Moderne"; clad in machine made or formed materials; and bearing the imagery of and paid for by an industrialist who had made his fortune from the defining innovation of the 20th centu­ ry, the automobile. Placing the Chrysler Building on the cover nudged readers' understanding of "historic" buildings forward in time. Inside, a section of the report outlined "Future Needs," including the need to "Broaden the nation's under­ standing of what is worth saving."1 This thematic issue of CRM is a contribution Cover of an advertising brochure for Dr. Walter H. toward meeting that need. U.S. Department of the Interior Silge, Optometrist, Chicago, IL, 1936. Courtesy of National Park Service Lake County (IL) Museum / Curt Teich Postcard Cultural Resources Archives. (Recent—continued on page 3) Contents Cultural Resources From the Recent Past 1 Rebecca A. Shiffer The Significance of the Recent Past 4 VOLUME 16 • NO. 6 Richard Longstreth ISSN 1068-4999 Collecting Today For Tomorrow 8 Published by the National Thomas J. Schlereth Park Service to promote and maintain high standards for preserving Maximum Collection Dynamics and managing cultural A Tradition of Change at Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village 12 resources. Mary Seelhorst Director Roger G. Kennedy Postcards: The Pan-Document of the 20th Century 16 Katherine Hamilton-Smith Associate Director Jerry L. Rogers McWindow on the World 18 Editor Ronald M. Greenberg David G. Orr Production Manager Dilemmas of Caring for Recent Public Art 19 Karlota M. Koester Dennis R. Montagna Guest Editor Rebecca A. Shiffer Historic 20th-century Building Products Database 21 Advisors Thomas C. Jester Joan Bacharach Museum Registrar, NPS Randall J. Biallas Disappearing Ducks and Other Recent Relics 23 Historical Architect, NPS Beth L. Savage John A. Burns Architect. NPS Harry A. Butowsky Good Intentions Gone Awry? 26 Historian, NPS Dwayne Jones and Gerron Hite Pratt Cassity Acting Executive Director, National Alliance of Preservation Commissions A Building With a Magnetic History 27 Muriel Crespi Michael F. Crowe Cultural Anthropologist, NI"S Craig W. Davis Archeologist, NPS Preserving the Legacy of the Cold War 28 Mark R. Edwards Amy Worden and Elizabeth Calvit Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, Maryland Recent Landmarks in Vancouver—The Post-1940s Inventory 31 Bruce W. Fry Robert G. Lemon and Marco D'Agostini Chief of Research Publications National Historic Sites Canadian Parks Service Developing a Survey Methodology for Roadside Resources 33 John Hnedak Architectural 1 listorian, NPS Dwayne Jones H. Ward Jandl Architectural llistcrri.ua, NI"S Where the Planner Meets the Road—The NPS Route 66 Study 34 Roger E. Kelly Archeologist, NlfS John Conoboy Ruthann Knudson Archeologist, NPS Antoinette J. Lee Historic Highway Preservation—Not A Dead End Street! 36 Historian, NPS Brian A. Butko John Poppeliers international Liaison Officer for Cultural Resources, NPS Made for Motoring 40 Brit Allan Storey Sara Amy Leach t listorian, Bureau of Reclamation pederal Preservation Forum Coritributing Editors A Museum for Gas, Food, Lodging, and a Duck 43 Stephen A. Morris J. Lance Mallamo Certified Local Governments (CLG) Coordinator, NPS Bruce Craig Cultural Resources Coordinator Supplement National Parks and t onservation Association Historic Signs: Resources for Preservation 45 Consultants Michael G. Schene Michael J. Auer Historian, NPS Kay D. Weeks Send articles, news items, and correspondence to the Editor, CRM (400), U.S. Department of the Interior, Technical Writer-Editor, NPS National Park Service, Cultural Resources, P.O. Box 37127, Washington, DC 20013-7127; (202-343-3395). 2 1993 No. 6 us the Curt Teich Postcard Archives, a unique record of Cultural Resources 20th-century America and an invaluable research tool for a wide variety of cultural resource professionals. from the Recent Past Archeologist David Orr, who collects and archives (continued from page 1) McDonald's ephemera, discusses how this corporate giant's disposable materials reflect our culture and our­ Over the last decade, professionals in the historic selves. preservation field, museums, archives, universities and While these three essays highlight important efforts to other organizations and agencies charged with studying, understand, preserve and interpret recent cultural documenting, and preserving America's cultural arti­ resources, several other authors discuss aspects of the facts, sites, structures and history have given increasing recent past that demand further study and evaluation. attention to the need to collect, Dennis Montagna addresses catalog, document and preserve unforeseen problems of some cultural resources from the mid-20th-century materials and recent past. This has proven to finishes used in the creation of be a complex undertaking, public art that could, if unre­ because these objects, sites and solved in the long-run, threaten buildings present new philo­ the works' physical and artistic sophical questions and physical integrity. Thomas Jester reports preservation and conservation on an ongoing NPS effort to problems not dealt with in the compile a database of 20th-cen­ past. In this issue of CRM, pro­ tury building products, their fessionals from a variety of cul­ characteristics and known tural resource fields address treatments, which will assist some of these problems, pose the preservation, rehabilitation, the questions facing themselves and restoration of buildings and their colleagues, and and structures from the recent describe some current pro­ past. grams and projects to study, evaluate and preserve our more All cultural resource profes­ recent cultural resources. sionals, regardless of their spe­ cific discipline, face the recur­ Although it is impossible to ring dilemma that they cannot precisely define the recent past, save everything. Judgments Richard Longstreth offers a def­ must be made, and, although it inition that provides a reason­ is impossible to totally exclude able context for the discussions personal, cultural or institu­ in the following pages: "a peri­ tional bias, those judgments od characterized by attitudes must be based on criteria. and practices that differ in Decisions about the historical some substantial way from significance of elements of the those now current, but that built environment and cultural remain within living memory landscapes are invariably based of many people." At the present on the criteria for listing on the time, this certainly includes the National Register of Historic mid-20th century, the 1930s- Places, the foundation of all 1960s. 2 federal and most state and local The essays by Richard historic preservation programs. Longstreth and Thomas Chrysler Building, New York City. William Van Alen, architect; 1928- Beth Savage's analysis of Schlereth present a framework 1930. Courtesy of Lake County (IL) Museum / Curt Teich Postcard National Register listings that for thinking about the built Archives. reflect recent significance iden­ environment, landscapes and tifies gaps in our knowledge material culture of the recent past and urge today's cul­ about recent cultural resources and suggests avenues for tural resource professionals not to be timid about begin­ further investigation. Dwayne Jones' and Gerron Hite's ning this thinking now, rather than later. They stress the discussion of a historic rehabilitation project illustrates continuum of history, and remind us to look at "every­ the potential consequences of those knowledge gaps and day" places and things, because this is the world that urges closer scrutiny of buildings not yet commonly most of us inhabit. accepted as historic. Michael Crowe's account of a sim­ Many institutions and individuals already consider the ple, unprepossessing building that was recently a candi­ recent past. Mary Seelhorst outlines how the staff of the date for demolition and is now being nominated for Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village rethought that National Historic Landmark status further reinforces the museum's mission, collections policies and interpretation need for further scrutiny of the