Vandalism Graffiti and the Civil War Graffiti Trail: A look at Conservation Issues at Historic Blenheim - a talk by Mary Jablonski.
Today there is a great deal of discussion about graffiti and its preservation. It is a difficult topic as there is not one type of graffiti but several, that include street art, protest, and vandalism. What should be saved and should be removed? Today Mary will take a look at a site with vandalism graffiti and its ongoing conservation. She wants to be clear that vandalism is the intentional damaging of property. This needs to be taken into account when conserving and interpreting this form of historic graffiti.
Historic Blenheim is a house with a large quantity of Civil War Union soldier graffiti from 1862-3. The house is in state of Virginia, which had succeeded from the United States and housed soldiers during their occupation of Fairfax, VA. The graffiti was intentional vandalism. Mary’s firm has been involved with some of the conservation treatments at the house and the on-going work to uncover this graffiti. This talk discusses some of the issues that have to be taken into consideration both for the conservation and for interpretation.
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