Brian Whetstone

Brian Whetstone is a is a federal historian with the Historic Architecture, Conservation, and Engineering Center (HACE) of the National Park Service. His research explores the intersections between public history, heritage, and twentieth century urban history in the United States. Whetstone received his PhD in History and a graduate certificate in Public History from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2023. From 2023 to 2024, Whetstone served as a Mellon Fellow in the Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism, and the Humanities at Princeton University where he was appointed as a lecturer in the Effron Center for the Study of America.

Whetstone will be conducting research for an early-stage manuscript project, Renting History: Housing, Labor, and America’s Heritage Infrastructure, that explores the practice of renting and the provision of housing at public history and heritage sites in the twentieth century. Specifically, Whetstone will research the experiences of formerly enslaved men and women at southern plantations and domestic workers at northern estates who emerged as the first generation of caretakers, tenants, and frontline workers as private homes transitioned into public historical sites in the early twentieth century.