History of CRM

The history of CRM has roots in ancient civilizations. Han dynasty emperors in China collected ancient artifacts, for example, and the Roman Emperor Hadrian preserved some ancient monuments. In the modern world, Renaissance Rome established a program to document and preserve ancient houses and monuments in the Vatican as early as 1462, following a decree by Pope Pius II. In 1666, Sweden passed the first law in Europe prohibiting the destruction of antiquities and applied the law to all of its citizens except the aristocracy. The English state showed a concern for civic monuments as early as the reign of Henry VIII and protected old royal strongholds and religious buildings. England passed antiquities legislation prohibiting the destruction of prehistoric remains in 1882. The Ancient Monuments Act, amended several times over the following decades, allowed the state to purchase and maintain guardianship over ancient monuments (see Antiquities and Cultural Heritage Legislation).

In the United States, the city of Philadelphia purchased and preserved Independence Hall (the Old State House) in 1816 to prevent its demolition for a subdivision. Congress mandated the Smithsonian Institution to explore the archaeological remains of the ‘mound builders’ as early as the 1840s. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, founded in 1853, appears to be the first civic preservation organization in the United States and raised money to purchase and preserve President George Washington’s estate. Congress established Yellowstone National Park in 1872 and purchased Civil War battlefield sites for preservation over the next few years. In 1889, federal legislation was passed to designate the prehistoric Pueblo site of Casa Grande in Arizona as the nation’s first national monument and to fund its preservation. Court decisions prevented the construction of a railroad through the Gettysburg Battlefield in 1896.

Not until the Antiquities Act of 1906, however, which prohibited the excavation of antiquities on public land without a federal permit and authorized the President to designate national monuments, did federal legislation establish a general foundation for CRM in the United States. Congress subsequently created the National Park Service in 1916 as the first governmental manager of natural and cultural resources and gave it authority in 1935 under the Historic Sites Act to document, acquire, and protect nationally important historical sites, objects, and buildings. The act also created the National Historic Landmarks program. Early CRM programs emerged during the Great Depression in the 1930s and 1940s in the context of federal relief programs such as the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.