MUSE Winston-Salem is honored to host the Historical Society of North Carolina's Spring 2024 Meeting. Members of the public are invited to attend the meeting's free keynote lecture at 7:00PM, at MUSE Winston-Salem, 226 S. Liberty Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27127.

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About the lecture:
“Preserving Wachovia: ‘There is none like it’”
“There is none like it” was Frederick William Marshall’s description of the 100,000-acre Moravian tract of Wachovia for his 1768 report on the Brethren’s new colony in North Carolina. Wachovia is remarkable in American history and endures in the culture, land-
scape, and people today. Since The Wachovia Study was launched in 1987 by M.O. and Martha Hartley, they have devoted their professional careers to the preservation of the history, place, and people of Wachovia. From protecting Bethania from an expressway corridor to recognition of African American history in Salem, preserving Wachovia continues to challenge. This illustrated lecture will present highlights from the Hartleys’ experience preserving Wachovia.

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About Martha Hartley:
Martha Hartley is Director of Moravian Research at Old Salem Museums & Gardens. A native of Winston-Salem, she received undergraduate degrees from Hollins College and studied for a year in Paris. From the University of Virginia, she received a master’s degree in Urban Planning and a Certificate in Historic Preservation. She is a Preservation Planner with varied experience including community preservation, advocacy, and public awareness. For nearly 40 years, Martha and her husband Michael, anthropologist and Emeritus Director of Archaeology at Old Salem, have worked together with the archaeology, history, landscape, and preservation of Moravian communities in the Winston-Salem area. For their work, they have been honored to receive The David Schattschneider Award for Excellence from the Center for Moravian Studies in Bethlehem, PA, the Robert E. Stipe Professional Award from Preservation North Carolina, the Archie K. Davis Award from the Wachovia Historical Society, and the Hall of Fame Community Service Award from the Liberian Organization of the Piedmont. The Minnette C. Duffy Landscape Preservation Award from Preservation North Carolina to the Bethania Historical Association was on behalf of the Hartleys’ work.

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In the past decade, Martha’s work at Old Salem has included the revised and expanded National Historic Landmark Nomination for the Old Salem Historic District, and for seven years she led research and community engagement for the Hidden Town Project: To Research and Reveal the History of Africans and African Descended People in Salem. The 2023 Brill publication Moravian Americans and Their Neighbors, 1772-1822, edited by Ulrike Wiethaus and Grant P. McAllister, includes Martha’s chapter “The Changing Landscape of Slavery in Salem and Its Legacy.”