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“The History of Our History”: The Preservation and Development of the College of William & Mary’s Wren Building as an Historic Site
Moniz, Katie
Moniz, Katie
Abstract
The Wren Building has been the core of the College of William & Mary for as long as it has operated. The history of the building is inseparable from that of the College. The traditions, politics, relationships, and events that make up the history of William & Mary have played out within the walls of the Wren Building—the tangible testimony of the College that has existed since the seventeenth century. For the William & Mary community, to understand the history of the Wren Building is also to understand its own identity. As such, examining the evolution of the conceptualization, preservation, and interpretation of the Wren Building as a historic site is of the utmost importance as it reflects the changing nature of the College and its place in the United States and the world. Through the lens of both public history and historical memory, this thesis traces the birth and life of a beloved historic site: one that emerged from a charred ruin after the Civil War, became the cornerstone of one of the most ambitious preservation projects in American History, and was the stage on which changing notions of historic interpretation in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have played out.
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2024-05-01
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History