About PiP & Kaitlin O’Shea

Hi, I’m Kaitlin, a historic preservationist dressed in pink on an adventure! This building is the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada.

Welcome, friends! Nice to meet you. I’m Kaitlin O’Shea, the writer of Preservation in Pink. “What is Preservation in Pink?” you might ask. Do you want the short or long version? Your choice.

The short story: 

• Connecting the dots from every day life to historic preservation, with coffee in one hand.
• Photographs, discussions, preservation education and advocacy, caffeinated and fueled by the belief the preservation improves everyone’s quality of life.
• Pink as in pink flamingos. What’s with flamingos? Check it out here.

The long story. Grab a cup of coffee and I’ll explain.  

After graduating from the University of Mary Washington with a degree in historic preservation, I began working full time, far away from my preservation classmates and far away from home. Over time I realized how much I missed the constant, diverse preservation conversations with my Mary Washington colleagues. Our most inspiring conversations were those late at night in the drafting lab or after we’d been studying and working nonstop for days, absorbing all of the preservation material that we could (and fully caffeinated). We devised plans to save the world via historic preservation. It was an incredible learning environment.

Once out of school and settling into our professions, it can be hard to maintain that academic spark and inspiration. I didn’t want to become jaded or tired of my work, nor did I want others to get to that point. We needed to keep our conversations going. My way to do this was to start a newsletter that could keep ideas flowing and discussions evolving. It didn’t have to be academic. It could be anything preservation related. Enter the flamingos (the fun side of preservation! See the link above).

Over the years, the newsletter evolved to a blog. Topics changed, from preservation education to issues in the news to roadside America to travel and photography based. Today Preservation in Pink remains a medium for me to share my world, through the eyes of a historic preservationist, and to meet others interested in historic preservation, professionally or avocationally.

The mission remains the same: to encourage communication between new and seasoned preservationists with and about the world around them. And to show everyone that historic preservation is everywhere you look and makes a positive difference in the world.

Want to chat or send a flamingo photo? Comment below or scroll to the bottom of the page to find all of the social media links. I’d love to meet you.

Cheers,

Kaitlin

Always on the lookout for sunshine and historic playgrounds.

Disclaimer: Please Note: The opinions expressed on Preservation in Pink are the opinions of the authors and contributors themselves and do not necessarily reflect the organizations for which they work and/or are associated with nor do they reflect the opinions of every contributor on this site or colleague.  Photographs: Unless otherwise noted, photographs were taken by and belong to Kaitlin O’Shea.

Preservation in Pink by Kaitlin O’Shea is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at preservationinpink.wordpress.com. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by contacting Kaitlin O’Shea.