Save America’s Treasures:
Heritage Preservation Joins White House
in National Preservation Effort
Click on photo for caption text.
In the 25 years since Heritage Preservation’s conception, the organization has evolved into the nation’s leading advocate for the proper care of collections in all types of institutions and in private hands. Our 25th anniversary provides an opportunity to consider our achievements: While we have much to celebrate—the publication of Caring for Your Historic House in October; an unprecedented partnership among Save Outdoor Sculpture!, Target Stores, and the National Endowment for the Arts to save public monuments for the new century; and a unique leadership role in the White House Millennium Council’s Save America’s Treasures program—we have much more to do.
A National Effort Is Born
As the new millennium approaches and people reflect on the past
to envision the future, Heritage Preservation’s mission to preserve cultural
treasures is generating widespread interest. In his State of the Union address in January,
President Clinton urged all Americans to preserve their heritage as a gift to the new
century. A few days later, he and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton announced the
formation of the White House Millennium Council and asked Heritage Preservation to play a
leadership role in developing a program called Save America’s Treasures.
Save America’s Treasures—a partnership between Heritage Preservation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and the National Park Foundation—was conceived of the President’s notion that only by protecting and preserving our cultural treasures can we learn who we are as a nation. The program urges people to save America’s heritage—the artworks, documents, objects, photographs, and structures in our communities and in our homes that tell the story of our nation and of our own individual lives. Specifically, Save America’s Treasures is charged with educating the public of the need to save our heritage for the future, providing materials that will help collecting institutions use the millennium as an opportunity to enhance collections care, and encouraging private support for preservation. Tiane C. Benson, former associate director for development and public affairs at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, has been named director of Save America’s Treasures, and Sara Karrer is assistant director.Preservation’s First Lady
Mrs. Clinton is a committed advocate for Saving
America’s Treasures. Over the past few months, she has highlighted a variety of
national treasures in need of preservation, including the Star-Spangled Banner, the Thomas
Edison National Historic Site and Invention Factory, Harriet Tubman’s home, and
Ganondagan State Historic Site. Several announcements of private support for these and
other projects have been announced over the past few months, 
and as a direct
result of Mrs. Clinton’s Save America’s Treasures tour in July, more people have
pledged additional funding. The gifts range from $13 million from Polo/Ralph Lauren and $5
million from the Pew Charitable Trust for the preservation of the Star-Spangled Banner, to
$100,000 from Lucy Waletsky for the gardens at Edith Wharton’s estate in Lenox,
Massachusetts, to $20,000 from Naomi and Jacob Waletsky and Sharon Patrick to help build
the longhouse at Ganondagan State Historic Site. Ann Bartley will contribute $10,000 to
the Women’s Rights National Historic Park, and Betsy Folger is donating $10,000 to
the Harriet Tubman home.Mrs. Clinton’s unwavering support for the program
has propelled it to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness. Newspapers,
magazines, and radio and television programs are covering preservation issues with more
frequency, and businesspeople, lawmakers, and families around dinner tables all across
America are talking about the need to protect their cultural riches for the future. As part of her widely publicized Save America’s
Treasures tour, Mrs. Clinton helped kick off the 
Save Outdoor Sculpture! partnership with Target Stores and the National
Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to preserve sculpture and monuments in communities throughout
the nation. Target and the NEA provided a $1.4 million gift to fund the program.
