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The National Trust: Its History and ‘Britishness’ Heera Chung(Kyung Hee University) This PaperThis Paper deals with history of the National Trust and its ‘Britishness’. The National Trust is the most important and successful voluntary society in Britain. But its history is still to be better known. Locating the Trust in the context of modern British history, this paper argues that the Trust attempted to be a preservation society for the nation including British colonies. It has reflected concerns about national identities. The National Trust was established in 1895 by Sir Robert Hunter, Octavia Hill, and Canon Rawnsley. They were concerned with preserving open space of natural beauty, and were also interested in safeguarding buildings of historical importance. The Trust attempted to find the essence of national identity was to be found in the fields and hedegerows, and in historical buildings. It desired to monumentalise English political, religious and cultural traditions for English-speaking peoples at home and abroad. The Trust believed that the nature and the historical monuments should be preserved for the nation. The concept of the nation by the Trust was much more extensive than that by other comtemporary preservationists whose main interests in southern England. During the 1930s and the 1940s the Trust’s mission shifted to preserving country houses, cooperating with the declining aristocracy. Although the country house scheme was to preserve historical monuments, it alienated the Trust from ordinary people. It failed to be a society for the whole community of British people. Since the 1970s the Trust attempted to expand its definition of what is worthy of preservation. New projects included preserving vernacular architecture, industrial archaeology, and also the life of the ordinary people. This led dramatic rise in membership, especially from the middle- and working-classes. The National Trust succeeded in retaining its identity as a preservation society for the nation, and also in being a cultural code representing Britishness.