Where, and when, did Americans first think of preserving places for history's sake?

In part two of his look at the history and preservation of America's Civil War battlefields, as captured in Pilgrim Places: Civil War Battlefields, Historic Preservation, and America’s First National Military Parks, 1863-1900, historian Richard West Sellars takes a look at efforts in the United States to preserve places of history prior to the Civil War.

This installment, coming Saturday, opens with a focus on the American Revolution. As Dr. Sellars points out, the event in American history prior to the Civil War that had the most potential to inspire the preservation of historic places was the American Revolution. And yet, between the Revolution and the Civil War, historic site preservation in America was limited and sporadic.