William Sumner Appleton and the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities

Résumé du livre

Through contract bidding, the utilization of multiple general contractors, and general lack of interest in the workmen involved in various house restoration projects, Appleton and SPNEA separated the tradespeople of restoration projects from the professional actions of preservation. Appleton's deliberate decision to isolate preservation professionalism from restoration trade-work was a way to isolate his cause from social concerns surrounding labor. This is interesting in the context of the period. While organizations like the Society of Arts and Crafts, Boston valued the arts and crafts as a way to elevate the craftsman, SPNEA institutionalized a method of preserving houses through funding and management, while failing to contribute to the development preservation trade work. Considering the longstanding credit to SPNEA in the development of a professional approach to the field of preservation, this social isolationism and alienation of labor in the restoration process explains why the connection between the Arts & Crafts and preservation movements did not coalesce in the same way as in nineteenth-century Britain.