What do you get when you ask the public to download a simple sign, find a place that is important to them, photograph themselves in front of that place holding the sign and then download it to the Internet?
You get This Place Matters.
More than 2,000 people took the National Trust for Historic Preservation (full disclosure: my employer) up on their offer, and the results are fascinating. When you have some time, go to the site, click on the slide show, and sit back and watch. I guarantee you’ll love it!
And now, the Trust is having a This Place Matters photo contest where you can go online and vote once per day for your favorite This Place Matters photo. The top three photographers win a digital camera. (Full disclosure: I am not eligible.)
You can guess which photo I’m voting for: Miller’s Grocery (shown above) in Christiana, Tennessee. (Full disclosure: I do not know the photographer or the subject.) I just love this picture. Perhaps it is because it comes from my home state (another disclosure). Perhaps I can just see myself sitting on the bench of a Tennessee country store with my dog by my side.
For whatever reason, I’m going online every day and voting for Miller’s Grocery. But you should view all 12 finalists and choose your own favorite. Perhaps you’ll fall for the kids in the Bronx. San Antonio’s old Humble Oil station may grab your heart. Or who knows, you may start crying reading the story of Hugh Smalling’s grave in Macon, Georgia.
The deadline for the contest is October 9th, but it is never too late to download a This Place Matters sign, find something that has special meaning and upload a photo at www.PreservationNation.org to tell the world about a place that matters to you. (Full disclosure: That’s me to the right in the photo below. It was not chosen as a finalist.)
More to come…
DJB
Last Friday as I boarded my plane in Dublin, I opened the overhead bin and came across a banjo case. A nearby passenger asked if it was mine, and I said, “No, but I was going to ask the same question.” A slight man with a female companion sitting across the aisle identified himself as the owner of the case, which he said held a 
We have just completed a wonderful International Conference of National Trusts here in Dublin—the 13th in the history of the National Trust movement. I suspect that when a small group of Anglophiles gathered together in the 1970s in Scotland for what became the first gathering of the world’s National Trusts, they could not have imagined either the spread of their movement or the diversity of people, countries, issues and models that we have seen this week from among the 200+ delegates in attendance.
As part of today’s International Conference of National Trusts, I joined a tour into the countryside to explore a bit of Irish history and see rehabilitation and interpretive efforts at work.
Today, we visited the battlefield where that victory was won: The Battle of the Boyne. It was here in 1690 that protestant King William of Orange defeated the army of the Catholic King James II. There’s a recently opened visitors and interpretive center which we toured with a guide from the site. As An Taisce put it in the conference materials, “the outcome of this battle has been the source of much bitterness historically and the correct interpretation of the site has been integral to the Irish Peace Process.” The closing line of the center’s interpretive film put it a little more directly: Issues arose in the battle that “reverberate to today.” The good efforts to focus on how different parts of Ireland view the battle and its outcome were obvious, showing another way historic places resonate even today. You could say that Irish history isn’t even history because it is as fresh as the morning’s news.
Every two years the world’s preservation and heritage conservation community comes together for the International Conference of National Trusts, a wonderful gathering of colleagues and friends working together across the globe to protect, enhance and responsibly enjoy our planet’s fragile heritage. To read my full post on the opening of ICNT13, check out the 
I am blessed with two talented children who teach me so much every day. Claire has an imaginative and artistic eye that she uses to great effect in her 
During last evening’s three-hour ringing of the bells at Christ Church Cathedral here in Dublin (apparently, a Friday evening tradition), I looked out the window to focus on the music and noticed the beautiful sunset. I raced out of the hotel and took a few pictures to capture in my mind the wonderful juxtaposition of the bell ringing and the Irish sunset on the medieval portion of the city.
I arrived in downtown Dublin mid-morning local time with the better part of the day free before my meetings began for the International National Trusts Organisation (
for their music programs, so I was delighted to see both the historic tracker action organ and a beautiful new modern three-manual tracker built in 1984 by Kenneth Jones of Bray, Co Wicklow. Unfortunately, I was unable to get a very clear picture, due to the lighting (or, more likely, the skill of the photographer), but I’m posting this anyway for my good friends John and George at 
I could go on, but like my schedule today I have to keep moving. A neighborhood pub provided lunch, and then I was off two blocks to see 
St. Patrick’s Cathedral Choir School, Founded 1432 A. D.” I had to laugh, because two days ago I was at Andrew’s school – also founded as a school for choir boys – as they celebrated their 100th anniversary. It was a great reminder of the tradition our son has been privileged to continue.
devoted to his political, religious, and literary life. I was pleased to see a memorial to the great blind Irish harper 
MORE TO COME... 