Memory and identity: the influence of early preservation practices on English culture

Mariel Rodriguez

doi:10.5920/ppp.547

Abstract

Until the nineteenth century, written records were often considered an adequate form of preservation for historic monuments, buildings, and landscapes. The shift from written to physical preservation was a gradual one that was pioneered by seventeenth century chorographers, eighteenth century antiquarians, and nineteenth century archaeological and architectural societies. Drawing on the work of historians who have examined these eras of amateur historical study, this paper will examine how chorographers and antiquarians who have not always been given serious consideration by historians of the modern preservation movement were, in fact instrumental in popularising heritage and advocating for early protectionist measures.

Highlights

From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, many historians and antiquarians used art and textual documentation as their primary means of preserving ancient monuments, historic buildings, and traditional landscapes
Antiquarian and archaeological societies continued to flourish, and over sixty new groups were formed throughout the country between 1850 and the passage of the 1913 Ancient Monuments Consolidation and Amendment Act. 62 Local groups continued to play a vital role in preservation, which took on a personal tone as groups worked to save monuments because of the specific local cultural currency with which they had been imbued
Even at the close of the nineteenth century, the preservation movement in England was still in its infancy, but the long history that saw chorographers evolve into antiquarians, and antiquarians to archaeologists and preservationists by the middle of the nineteenth century was a fundamental precursor to the actions that followed

Summary

Writing as a tool of preservation

Written records were often considered to be an adequate form of historical preservation. Past.[2] William Camden’s Britannia, first published in 1586, pioneered this trend, and the Society of Antiquaries’ official series the Vetusta Monumenta, which began in 1718, as well as countless antiquarians working independently, compiled similar chorographies of historic monuments and sites throughout the country in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Prior to the publication of Britannia, there existed in Britain a tradition of regional studies, but these studies existed without acknowledging one another, and often failed to situate regional history in the context of broader national history.[5] Camden’s Britannia revolutionised the field of regional studies by rejecting the existing tradition and creating a work that examined and connected the touchstones of local history throughout Great Britain and Ireland His chorography was immensely popular, running to five editions even before an English translation appeared in 1610, and it was hugely influential to the antiquarians that followed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By promoting the notion that architecture was part and parcel of a national heritage, antiquarians before the nineteenth century helped ensure that historic monuments would be seen as important aspects of identity and collective memory throughout the nineteenth century.[23]

The popularisation of antiquarianism

Preservation as a grassroots movement

Conclusion