In 2023, Sarah Pawlicki, an American Conservation Experience-Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, immersed herself in the work of the National Historic Landmarks (NHL) program at the National Park Service. During that time, she created a new and interactive digital program interpreting women’s histories as told by NHLs while highlighting the National Park Service’s ongoing efforts to tell a more inclusive history.

Learn more about Pawlicki's work at the National Park Service (NPS) and how we can make these stories more broadly accessible in this short interview.

Tell us more about your fellowship? Why don’t we see more women's history and stories in our local and national landmarks?

For a long time, women's histories weren't highlighted as landmarks because they didn't fit the mold for how historians and preservationists defined "significant" histories. For much of the United States' history, women were technically barred from participation in the two spheres of activity preservationists emphasized: military engagement and political action. If you're defining "significance" solely by who served in wars or who held political office, it makes sense that men are often the central figure in those histories. Of course, women were and are part of those military and political stories too. Still, if women were included in the interpretation at a historic site, they frequently were depicted as being at the fringe of things, rather than as central players.

What was the focus of your work with the NHL program?

I worked with the NHL program to expand and diversify the histories it told about women. Out of over 2,600 NHLs, only about 5 percent are dedicated to women's histories, and within that percentage, wealthy white women are significantly overrepresented. My fellowship project investigated preexisting NHLs to uncover the women's histories that were untold and hidden at those places. I also had the opportunity to research new potential NHLs that would help the program become more representative of the country’s past.

Do most people understand what NHLs are? What were you trying to change through your work with the program and the Park Service?

When most people think about the NHL program, they probably remember a bronze designation plaque they noticed on the side of a building that said the place "possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America." I don’t think most people’s familiarity with the program extends beyond that, in part because the NHL Program hasn’t frequently focused on communicating with the public about the work it does. People tend to think of NHL designation as a general honorific. That perception can make the program come across as kind of bland, which is especially unfortunate because the NHL Program recognizes so many remarkable, exceptionally significant historic places .

My fellowship tried to expand people's understanding of what the NHL program does, how it operates, and why its work is dynamic and interesting. The NHL program provides a wealth of information about the nation's most extraordinary historic places, so we could all learn a lot from the stories they tell. Part of my job was making those histories feel accessible and relevant to a wide audience.

You did quite a bit of interpretation and outreach, targeting the next generation of preservationists, namely K-12 students. Why was it important to you to connect students to the history in the NHL program?

Teaching students about historic preservation is a wonderful way to show them that history is literally all around them—in parks they walk past on their way to school, in warehouses located in their neighborhoods, or in nooks and crannies marked with historic plaques. History then becomes something they can interact with in a tangible, sensory way in their everyday lives, not something that is distant or irrelevant.

Perhaps especially in an age when AI can disrupt our sense of what is and isn't real, it is important to connect students with our shared tangible heritage. There is a concrete (sometimes literally concrete!) record of where we've been as humans, how our ancestors lived, and how they made the world we live in possible—both for good and for ill. Sharing that rootedness in place with the next generation of preservationists is exciting and energizing.

What advice or examples can you give us for how to do a better job of incorporating women's histories into the stories told at our landmarks?

To better incorporate women's histories it is essential to think about historical significance expansively. National Trust sites show how we can reimagine the places we preserve. For example, research at the Pope-Leighey House highlights how Marjorie Leighey saved her Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home from demolition. This story gives Leighey her due as a preservationist. It also makes it clear that the site's story isn't all about Frank Lloyd Wright. There’s room for more than one narrative at every historic place.

During my fellowship with the NHL program, one of the strategies for uncovering women's histories that I found most helpful was exploring historic sites that were, in their NHL nominations, named exclusively for a man who lived there. So often, there's a fascinating woman's history lingering just under the surface!

For example, take the case of the Robert M. La Follette House in Maple Bluff, Wisconsin. Belle Case La Follette, who married Robert in 1881, was herself a vibrant, charismatic person with a fascinating career. She was a suffragist, a civil rights advocate, and a co-founder of the Woman's Peace Party—and yet she's virtually invisible in the NHL documentation for the property. Just looking a little more closely at that NHL brings her story to light.

How can we make those types of best practices more accessible to more people

We can demystify how and why we as preservationists and historians do the work that we do. As a Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellow, I worked on a digital program to educate 3rd grade through 12th grade students about women's histories as told through NHLs. The program explains the NHL Program's mechanics and empowers students to think through questions that are critical to bringing more women's histories into the spotlight.

Including more people—especially young people—in historic preservation is vital to creating more authentically democratic historical designation processes. It is hard to make the argument to young people that history matters when they feel they have little to no say in how history is remembered. I think it is important to communicate that the commemorative landscape isn’t just something that happens to us. It is something that we build and collectively invest in.