Heritage Documentation Programs

[2] Though it was founded as a temporary, "ten-weeks" constructive make-work program for architects, draftsmen, and photographers left jobless by the Great Depression, the Historic American Buildings Survey has endured to this day.

[7] They began to document the built environment in the United States, carrying out multi-format surveys that has today amassed "more than 581,000 measured drawings, large-format photographs, written histories, and original field notes for more than 43,000 historic structures and sites dating from Pre-Columbian times to the twentieth century.

[8] Peterson stated that the survey initially would, "...include public buildings, churches, residences, bridges, forts, barns, mills, shops, rural outbuildings, and any other kind of structure of which there are good specimens extant."

Notable HABS photographers included Jack Boucher, who worked for the project for over four decades,[9][10][11] Robert W. Tebbs,[12] Richard Koch,[13][14] and Jet Lowe.

Many images, drawings, and documents are available through the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, including proposed, demolished, and existing structures; locales, projects, and designs.