07/05/2022
Preservation and Photography Matters when Documenting Historic Resources
A love letter to the Heritage Documentation Program and the Library of Congress
As a nation we need to preserve the historic resources of the United States. I feel it is an honor to work with the Library of Congress and the many state and national agencies. Many state agencies from the Department of Transportation to the many local boards appreciate how preserving history brings many windfalls to the public. The many national agencies from the Corps of Engineers to National Board of Transportation work with the Heritage Documentation Program to document some of our great nation’s greatest historic resources.
The Heritage Documentation Program (HDP) which is part of the Nation Park Service (NPS), administers HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey), the Federal Government's oldests historic preservation program and companion programs Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS). The documentation produced through the programs is one of the United States (US) largest archives of historic resources such as architecture, architectural resources, landscapes, and engineering documentation.
The Nation Park Service keeps the Heritage Documentation Program Records at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.. There are over 40,000 records on architecture and historic sites, consisting of written reports, measured drawings and most importantly large-format black and white photographs with accompanying negatives. This special collection is maintained and shared at the Library of Congress, it is available to the general public and very importantly is copyright free! You can get hard copies and the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reading Room. You can also easily get electronic formats of the historic records at the Library of Congress website located at :http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/.
