Thursday, July 10, 2008

Finding Digitized Historic Photographs II

Finding Digitized Historic Images of Regional Architecture
As promised in my earlier post, I have some suggestions for finding digital reproductions of historic photographs recording the built environment of the Gulf Region. Many of the general sites mentioned in my earlier post are also applicable. In addition to the Historic American Buildings Survey images linked here, the Library of Congress also retains WPA and FSA records. Getty Images has some stellar reproductions of 1950s-60's era photographs of Moisant International Airport in New Orleans and of Florida resorts/motels.

Before naming specific websites, I should address my use of "regional" architecture: here I am using the Southeastern Architectural Archive's collecting areas of the Gulf Region states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Our most comprehensive holdings relate to greater New Orleans, so on this blog I will primarily focus on the Crescent City, but here are some great sources for digital reproductions of photographs of the region's built environment:


Architecture and Interior Design for 20th-Century America
Part of the Library of Congress American Memory Project... photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner, 1935-1955.

Auburn University Digital Library
See for example their collection of postcards.

Birmingham Public Library Digital Collections


Built in America: HABS/HAER
Historic American Buildings Survey and Historic American Engineering Record maintained by Library of Congress, with records from 1933-present.

GALILEO, The Digital Library of Georgia
See, for example, the Georgia Design Guidelines (urban planning) and Hubert Bond Owens and John Linley Image Collections at the Owens Library (historic architecture and landscapes).

Key West Public Library Digital Collections

The Monroe County Florida Public Library System maintains a growing digital collection: includes images of historic structures in Marathon, and the Dale McDonald Collection.

LOUISiana Digital Library

Mississippi Digital Library

New Orleans Public Library Photographs Arranged by Street Names

Publication of Archival Library and Museum Materials (PALMM)
For Florida, created by a consortium of the state university libraries.

University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
The Sydnia Keene Smyth Collection focuses on Antebellum Architecture of Tuscaloosa.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Does "The Gulf" include all the way down to Key West, FL? The public library there has a very extensive photo collection which is currently being scanned and they can be accessed through their website.

Keli Rylance said...

Got it! Thank you for the tip.