Digging Deeper with Nina Scall, Director of Programs for the TN Wars Commission
“I kind of see archaeology and historic preservation as intertwined, interrelated fields.” – Nina Scall
This week I interview Nina Scall, the Director of Programs for the Tennessee Wars Commission. Nina began her career in history as an archaeologist and transitioned into historic preservation. In this episode we talk about the connections between the two fields and how Nina brings her experience to the TN Wars Commission.
Nina has a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from University of Maryland and a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design. Nina’s archaeology experience includes field schools in Italy and Virginia and work as a field technician in New York. While completing her master’s degree she worked in cultural resource management for Preservation Long Island. Nina doesn’t believe that she stepped out of archaeology and into preservation as she sees the two fields as interrelated. “I feel that these two disciplines are two puzzle pieces from the same puzzle and when you put them together a more complete picture of history and the cultural environment emerges.”
Currently Nina works as the Director of Programs for the Tennessee Wars Commission. The Wars Commission was created by an act of legislation in 1994 and remains a unique program in the United States. The goal of the commission is to preserve “Tennessee’s military heritage by coordinating the planning, preservation, and promotion of structures, sites, and battlefields in Tennessee; and by acquiring or providing funds for the acquisition of battlegrounds, cemeteries, and other historic properties associated with the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War. This mission is realized through the management of two grant funds; grant writing, by awarding funds to qualified applicants, and via the completion of grant contracts.”
Nina’s office is located in the Clover Bottom Mansion in Nashville, TN. She can be reached by phone at 615-770-1095 or via her email, nina.scall@tn.gov.
