Hello and Welcome!
My name is Hannah St. Onge. In 2022, I graduated summa cum laude from the University of Mary Washington (UMW) with my B.A. in Historic Preservation and a minor in Museum Studies. In 2024, I graduated from Clemson University’s Graduate Program in Historic Preservation (based in Charleston, SC) with my M.S. in Historic Preservation.
I am passionate about helping people find a sense of place and connect with their identity in historic buildings. As our field searches for a way to serve diverse communities, I want to use my experience from my classes and from my work in the field to help communities advocate for the preservation of their cultural heritage. I have a particular interest in digital preservation, and I hope to use that interest to reunite groups with their lost cultural heritage through the use of digital tools.
My History
I came to the field of historic preservation by way of museums. Like many in the field, I grew up visiting various museums and historic sites with my family. As a native of northeastern Connecticut, however, it was a small historic house museum in the area that set me on the path to preservation.
I began as a Junior Volunteer at the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, Connecticut, a museum dedicated to telling the story of Prudence Crandall and the African American students at her academy, which was one of the first academies for young African American women in the country. A year later, I became a Junior Docent at the museum, where I led guided tours, collaborated with fellow Juniors on research projects, and helped with various other tasks around the museum. Through this work, I further developed my love of history and discovered a love of working with the public. As I grew with the program and began looking for colleges, I knew I wanted to pursue a career in a history-related field. I found the Historic Preservation program at the University in Mary Washington, and knew from the start that it was the perfect fit.
My time at UMW has shaped me exponentially. From the moment I arrived, I knew I had found a tight-knit, encouraging department that has helped me grow as a preservationist and as a person. While museums were my first love, my core classes in the major exposed me to architectural history, documentation and field work, and other aspects of historic preservation. I discovered that my true passion lies in building conservation, especially in documentation and digital preservation. I am incredibly thankful to my professors at UMW, who have encouraged me to be curious and go outside my comfort zone in order to learn more about the field every day. I would not be the preservationist and person I am today without their guidance and support throughout my four years at Mary Wash.
As I continued my education at Clemson, I further grew as a preservationist. I had opportunities to do hands-on conservation work, use technologies such as laser scanning and thermal imaging to document and investigate buildings, and grew more confident with software such as Autodesk AutoCAD and ArcGIS ArcPro. For my thesis, I investigated the use of design and documentation software in museums and historic sites to interpret historic buildings, and whether or not individuals with a preservation background are involved in that work. It is my hope that this research will help preservationists understand their role (or potential role) in the subfield of museums, and help museums better understand the use of such technology.
