In recognition of his trailblazing work helping generations find value in humble historic buildings, renown folklorist Henry H. Glassie will receive Indiana Landmarks’ 2024 Williamson Prize for outstanding leadership in historic preservation.

“More than anyone else, Henry has contributed to our knowledge of vernacular architecture and material culture, vastly broadening the scope of historic preservation,” says Marsh Davis, president of Indiana Landmarks. “He understands buildings the way an anthropologist would, using clues in buildings’ forms to point to their cultural and geographic origins. Many historic buildings would have been otherwise lost if Henry had not taught us what they are and why they are important.”

Born in Washington, DC, Glassie came to Indiana to serve as professor of Indiana University’s Folklore Institute from 1970-1976 before a tenure at the University of Pennsylvania from 1976-1988 as professor and chair of the department of Folklore and Folklife. In 1988, he returned to Indiana University’s Folklore Institute, retiring from the university in 2008 with the title college professor emeritus of folklore and ethnomusicology.

He conducted fieldwork to study housing and material culture in Turkey, Ireland, and India as well as the United States. Over his lifetime, he has published extensively on a variety of subjects, including vernacular architecture. He is best known in historic preservation as the author of seminal texts Vernacular Architecture, Pattern in Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United States and Folk Housing in Middle Virginia. His study of humble, rural properties laid the groundwork for nominating rural historic districts to the National Register of Historic Places. He collaborated with Indiana Landmarks to successfully nominate Maple Grove Road in Bloomington—Indiana’s first rural historic district—to the National Register.

He played a hands-on role promoting preservation in Bloomington, where he helped restore six houses, served on the Bloomington Historic Preservation Commission, and chaired the board of local historic preservation nonprofit Bloomington Restorations, Inc. In the 1970s, he also helped survey the city’s historic structures, identifying buildings in need of preservation and laying the foundation for zoning ordinances to establish a downtown historic district. As a professor, he led students on walking tours to show them historic patterns of housing and industrial architecture.

Outside academia, Glassie helped organize the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival and Office of Folklife Programs, served on the first Folk Arts panel of the National Endowment of the Arts, and as a consultant for outdoor museums such as Conner Prairie Pioneer Settlement, Plimouth Plantation, and Ulster-American Folk Park. He has served as past president of the American Folklore Society and Vernacular Architecture Forum, which named an award for outstanding scholarly achievement after him. President Clinton appointed Glassie to the board of the National Council on the Humanities in 2000.

“I have spent a life that has incorporated a lot of things but mostly I’ve spent my life with people of modest means in backcountry places, and my work in vernacular architecture has had some influence on historic preservation,” notes Glassie. “I take pride in this award being given to someone who has committed himself to that kind of work, attending primarily to forgettable buildings which are more creative to me from an artistic standpoint than big fancy buildings.”

Glassie will be honored as part of Indiana Landmarks’ annual meeting in Indianapolis on September 7.

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About the Williamson Prize
In naming this individual award, Indiana Landmarks honors the impactful career of J. Reid Williamson, Jr., president of Indiana Landmarks from 1973 to 2005. A change agent for the organization and the state, Reid Williamson advanced the preservation movement by stressing the importance of local preservation organizations and by using restoration as a tool to revitalize entire neighborhoods and towns. Under his leadership, Indiana Landmarks created regional offices to serve the entire state, and grew in membership, staff and endowment. The Williamson Prize includes a $1,000 cash award and the Williamson Prize sculpture by Evansville artist John McNaughton.

Indiana Landmarks revitalizes communities, strengthens connections to our diverse heritage, and saves meaningful places. With nine offices located throughout the state, Indiana Landmarks helps people rescue endangered landmarks and restore historic neighborhoods and downtowns. People who join Indiana Landmarks receive its bimonthly magazine, Indiana Preservation. For more information on the not-for-profit organization, call 317-639-4534, 800-450-4534, or visit www.indianalandmarks.org.

MEDIA CONTACT
Mindi Woolman, Director of Marketing and Communications, Indiana Landmarks, 317-639-4534, mwoolman@indianalandmarks.org