Recommendations of the Large Industrial Artifact Advisory Panel. America's Industrial Heritage Project, Pennsylvania

摘要

The material remains that reflect the rise of heavy industry in the United States are massive, and their preservation and interpretation are extremely complex tasks. The huge artifacts from industrial sites are notoriously expensive to conserve and store, and highly dependent on context for both maintenance and interpretation. To start planning for the proper treatment of these artifacts, which clearly must be one of America's Industrial Heritage Projects (AIHP's) fundamental objectives, an advisory panel of 28 specialists - archeologists, historians, museum directors and curators, historical architects, and conservators - was established to develop recommendations. Recommendations of the panel will help determine what should be saved, and how, and will guide the interpretation of the material. The AIHP represents an opportunity to preserve fundamental elements of the material culture of an era that produced most of today's social, technological, economic, and political realities. The artifacts directly associated with industrial production - the buildings, machinery, furnishings, graffiti, and documents - as well as the material reflection of the social system - the houses, churches, clubs, union halls, restaurants, and bars - all still exist. If efforts to preserve them are not begun now, however, these artifacts will be lost.