Collections by Subject: Historic Preservation
A Selected List of Holdings in the Archives and Manuscripts Department, University of Maryland Libraries
For more information about how to access materials in this guide, please visit the Maryland Room web page or fill out an information request.
-
Orin M. Bullock, Jr.
papers, 1920-1986. 66.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Orin M. Bullock, Jr. was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects who had a long career in historic preservation. His papers deal with his education at Harvard University, his work at Colonial Williamsburg and on restoration projects all over the east coast, as well as his retirement career teaching at the University of Maryland. The collection includes drawings, photographs, negatives, journals, and files. The collection is unprocessed but a preliminary inventory is available.
-
Gene A. Chesley papers, 1800-1984. 19.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Gene A. Chesley (1935-1981) was a highly regarded scenic designer, theatre historian, and teacher. Chesley taught in the Dramatic Art Deparment at the University of California Davis from 1963 until his death at age 46 in 1981. As a UCD faculty member, Chesley began an eleven-year project to identify and document extant historic theatres, opera houses, and performance halls in all fifty states. He became a renowned authority on American theatres built between 1800 and 1914, and a strong advocate for the renovation and preservation of theatres. The bulk of the Chesley Collection concerns research conducted for the National List of Historic Theatre Buildings, as well as Chesley's involvement in restoration projects undertaken during the 1970s. The depth of information concerning individual theatres varies considerably, depending on the thoroughness of the person(s) who responded to Chesley's letter of inquiry. Some files contain only a newspaper account of the renovation of a particular theatre while other files hold a broad range of materials including the original correspondence; reports and forms; playbills and programs; newspaper articles; photographs, slides, postcards; blueprints and drawings; historical files; and project files.
-
Papers of Charles Wallace Collins, 1915-1972. 13.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Charles Wallace Collins (1879-1964) was a lawyer, writer, and librarian. During a long career in Washington, D.C., his positions included director of the Economic Section of the Legislative Reference Service at the Library of Congress, Librarian of the Supreme Court, General Counsel for the Bureau of the Budget, and Deputy Comptroller of the Currency. In addition, he was an authority on banking law and in his private law practice he served as counsel to many of the leading financial institutions and bank holding companies in the United States. His relationship with the Bank of America was particularly significant. Following his retirement in 1927, Collins devoted himself to restoring and renovating his home, an eighteenth-century estate known as "Harmony Hall," and other properties he owned in Prince George's County, MD. He also wrote several books and pamphlets expressing his views supporting "states' rights" and segregation.
-
Papers of Ernest A. Connally, 1967-1997. 24.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The Ernest A. Connally Collection documents US participation in the international preservation movement in the 1970s and 1980s. The collection contains materials related to Connally's work with the International Centre for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), UNESCO, and the National Park Service.
-
Papers of Hiroshi Daifuku, 1954-1980. 1.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The papers of Hiroshi Daifuku consist of photocopies of UNESCO trip reports documenting cultural sites and conservation efforts around the globe. The collection is unprocessed but an inventory is available.
-
Papers of Joan Dillon, 1862-1998. 10.25 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Joan Kent Dillon (b. 1925) is a nationally known historic preservation activist, having served on the Board of Directors of the National Trust for Historic Preservation from 1980 to 1989 and the Smithsonian Institution from 1989 to the present. A long-time resident of Kansas City, Dillon began her involvement with historic theaters in 1974, when she purchased the Folly Theater in the city center. Over the next thirteen years she raised more than $5 million to renovate the former burlesque hall. Her activities with the Folly Theater led to her involvement with the League of Historic American Theaters (LHAT), on whose Board of Directors she served after 1978. Through her growing involvement with theaters, she met David Naylor, a photographer and author of two books on American movie theaters. Together they decided to pursue Dillon's longstanding idea of a book on nineteenth-century American theaters. In the period between 1994 and 1996, they traveled extensively, viewing, evaluating, and photographing theaters throughout the United States. The resulting book, American Theaters: Performance Halls of the Nineteenth Century, appeared in 1997. The papers focus exclusively on the research, preparation and publication of American Theaters: Performance Halls of the Nineteenth Century. The collection documents theaters included in the book, as well as theaters that were considered for inclusion but rejected. There are also a large number of photographs and slides of theaters documented in the files.
-
Henry Chandlee Forman
papers, 1919-1989. 5.50 linear feet and 85
items.
Location: National Trust for Historic Preservation Library Collection
Henry Chandlee Forman was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, archaeologist, historian, preservationist, and teacher. His papers consist of architectural drawings, historical notes, field notes, photographs, and negatives. The collection is unprocessed but a preliminary inventory is available.
-
Greenbelt Homes, Inc., Architectural Drawings, 1935-1975. 7 reels of microfilm.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Greenbelt, Maryland, was the largest of three towns developed under the Greenbelt Town Program in the late 1930's. Today, Greenbelt and the Town Program hold an important place in the history of American architecture and town planning. This collection consists of the architectural drawings of Greenbelt Homes, Inc., and includes blueprints, tracings, and drawings of Greenbelt buildings and homes, their accoutrements, and their environment.
-
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) Collection, 1933-1969. 104 items.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) drawings from Maryland locations, including the Baltimore Shot Tower, the Wye House Orangery, and the Chase-Lloyd House in Annapolis. A complete set of HABS drawings is available online at the Library of Congress.
-
Papers of Celia M. Holland, 1861-1993. 12.50 linear feet, 3012 slides, 338 photographs.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Celia M. Holland (1911-1993), a Baltimore, Maryland, native, was a local history writer who became, through her research, the unofficial historian of Howard County, Maryland. Her most important work was the monograph entitled Old Homes and Families of Howard County, Maryland. She also produced numerous newspaper and magazine articles on Maryland history topics and conducted an extensive correspondence with many individuals sharing similar local history interests. Mrs. Holland's papers consist of correspondence and biographical information, writings and publicity, property documentation, county subject files, and research materials concerning historic personages and other historical topics. Also includes over 3,000 color slides of historic buildings and locations throughout the state of Maryland.
-
Papers of Henry Powell Hopkins, 1886-1959. 3.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Architect Henry Powell Hopkins designed many buildings on the University of Maryland at College Park campus, and he also designed and remodeled a number of significant structures throughout the state of Maryland. Materials such as photographs, drawings, and clippings document Hopkin's architectural works and interests. The collection also includes representations, such as drawings and blueprints, of private residences, educational and medical facilities, and government, business, and religious buildings designed by Hopkins.
-
Papers of Charles Bridgham Hosmer, Jr., 1855-1991. 30.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Charles Bridgham Hosmer, Jr. (1932-1993) is widely regarded as the foremost historian of the historic preservation movement. His two major works, Presence of the Past: The History of the Preservation Movement in the United States Before Williamsburg and Preservation Comes of Age: From Williamsburg to the National Trust, 1926-1949, have become standard teaching and reference texts in the historic preservation field. Hosmer's papers primarily consist of materials relating to these two books, including biographical and research notes, correspondence, manuscript drafts, articles from newspapers and periodicals, and book chapters. Also included in the collection are drafts of other articles and books Hosmer wrote, oral history interview tapes and transcripts, photographs, and microfilm.
-
Richard Hubbard Howland papers, 1879-2006. 3.25 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Richard Hubbard Howland (b. 1910, Providence, Rhode Island) was the first president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. He received an A. B. from Brown University in 1931, an A. M. from Harvard in 1933, and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Classical Archaelogy in 1946. He spent five years at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (1933-1938), before returning to the U. S., where he taught at Wellesley College in Boston. He spent ten years (1946-1956) at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was chairman and founder of the Department of Art History. After serving as President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation from 1956 to 1960, Howland went to work at the Smithsonian Institution, where he was Chairman of the Department of Civil History at the Museum of History and Technology until 1967, and then Special Assistant to Secretary S. Dillon Ripley until his retirement in 1985. Howland's papers contain correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, writings and publications, research material and lecture notes, photographs, appointment books, awards and certificates, clippings, programs and brochures, and directories documenting his career, primarily at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, as well as activities in various cultural and social organizations.
-
Jandl-Stevenson Collection, 1908-1986. 12.25 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
H. Ward Jandl and Katherine C. Stevenson were both architectural historians who collaborated to compile research data involving the Sears, Roebuck and Company mail-order house designs prevalent in the first half of the twentieth century. The collections include correspondence, research notes, photographs, and negatives relating to the research and production of their book Houses by Mail (Preservation Press, 1986), which serves as a guide to the homes manufactured and sold by Sears, Roebuck and Company from 1908 to 1940. The designs and materials for approximately 450 houses were featured in the company's mail-order catalogs, which the authors bring to light in their informative book.
-
Papers of Theodore R. McCann, 1945-1989. 19.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Theodore (Tedd) R. McCann (1929-1996) spent most of his professional career working for the National Park Service on a variety of projects, but specializing in urban parks. His papers include correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs and slides, management plans, drawings, meeting minutes, and other planning materials relating primarily to the development of urban parks. Projects that McCann worked on include the Gateway National Recreation Area in New York and New Jersey; Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco; Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area, Ohio; Lowell National Historical Park, Massachusetts; Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, Atlanta; Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, near Los Angeles; and Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty, New York. Materials relating to McCann's study of President Roosevelt's summer home in Warm Springs, Georgia, and of the Rockefeller Estate in Pocantico Hills, New York are also included. The Women's Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, New York was McCann's last project before he retired in 1984. The collection also includes an oral history of McCann conducted in 1989 about his role in the National Park Service, personal files, McCann's handwritten notes proposing future projects, and ideas for speeches.
-
Papers of William J. Murtagh, 1923-2004. 50.25 linear feet and 1155 items.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
William J. Murtagh is one of the world's leading historic preservationists. As an administrator, educator, speaker, and writer he has helped shaped the historic preservation movement for more than fifty years. Murtagh was the first Keeper of the National Register and also worked at the National Trust in an executive capacity for a number of years. He is the author of Keeping Time, a basic text on the development of the historic preservation movement. Murtagh held several teaching positions throughout his career at such institutions as Columbia University, the University of Hawaii, the University of Florida, and the University of Maryland. William J. Murtagh's papers consist of materials documenting his career in both the public and private sector. These materials include correspondence, memos and minutes, research notes, writings, speeches, lectures, reports, photographs, memorabilia, and personal records.
-
Navy Legacy Resource Management Program Collection, 1970-1988. 32.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Reference copies of proposals documenting Navy-related activities in the Legacy Resource Management Program, including preservation and identification of important archaeological sites, environmentally threatened wetlands, Native American burial grounds, nineteenth-century base buildings, historic shipwrecks, and material evidence from the Cold War. Other types of documents include preservation training materials, minutes from meetings and workshops, general correspondence, and records documenting administrative and financial oversight of the Legacy program. The collection also includes slides, photographs, videotapes and audio material, which focus on training and the preservation of specific resources on military installations.
-
Papers of Charles E. Peterson, 1927-2004. 590 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Charles E. Peterson (1996-2004) was an architectural historian, restorationist and planner. He began his career with the National Park Service in 1929. In 1933 he founded the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). After serving as a naval commander during World War II Peterson planned the new Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia. After retiring from the Park Service in 1962, Peterson became active in Philadelphia preservation issues and was instrumental in the revitalization of Society Hill. He was active in a number of professional organizations and was one of the founders of the Association of Preservation Technology. The Peterson papers include, among other items, the correspondence of his consulting office, 1962 to present, with a particular focus on the status of the HABS program over the years. Also in the collection are materials covering Mr. Peterson's career in the National Park Service; course syllabi related to Mr. Peterson's teaching in the Columbia University School of Architecture; and documentation of a two-summer HABS program in Hawaii. Mr. Peterson's awards and trophies, as well as original photographs, drawings, and his freehand sketches made in the West between 1927 and 1941, are also included. Materials related to Peterson's personal research interests can also be found in this collection. The Peterson collection is currently closed for processing and access to materials is very limited at this time.
-
Archives of Preservation Action, 1975-1998. 40.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
The Archives of Preservation Action consist of correspondence, minutes, reports, photographs, and research files related to the work of the organization for the past twenty-five years.Preservation Action serves as an advocate for the historic preservation movement and actively lobbies Congress on issues of concern to the preservation field.
-
Archives of Professional Restoration, 1990-2003. 60.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Professional Restoration was formed in 1987 to provide expert technical and practical assistance to contractors, architects, developers, and government agencies concerning the use and maintenance of stone and metals as building materials. The company also performed actual restoration, reparation, and maintenance work on monuments, sculptures, and buildings. The archives of Professional Restoration document approximately sixteen restoration projects in the DC area and includes project files, reports, slides and film footage dating from 1987 to the closing of the company in 2003. Notable projects include the restoration of the Taft Memorial Bridge Lions, the Smithsonian Castle, Jackson Place, and Fort McHenry. The collection is currently unprocessed but a preliminary inventory is available.
-
Papers of Frederick L. Rath, Jr., 1917-1998. 32.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
Papers of Frederick L. Rath, Jr., a pioneer of historical conservation. Rath served from 1949 to 1956 as the director of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, newly created by Congress to succeed the National Council for Historic Sites and Buildings, which he had also headed. The papers document Rath's time at the National Trust, as well as his later career at the New York State Historical Association, where he became vice-director in 1957; at New York State's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, where he was deputy commissioner from 1972 until 1979; and at the Eastern National Park and Monument Association, where he was chief executive officer from 1979 to 1987. Also included are personal papers documenting Rath's early education at Dartmouth and Harvard, and his time in the Army during World War II, as well as his work as historian at the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, New York.
-
Sears Roebuck Blueprints Collection, 1920-1930. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
This collection contains blueprints of homes available from the Sears and Roebuck Company. Included in the collection are homes in Cheverly and Riverdale in Prince George's County.
-
Anne St. Clair Wright
papers, 1950-1995. 36.00 linear feet.
Location: Historical Manuscripts
This collection consists of correspondence, minutes, drafts, reports, and publications of Anne St. Clair Wright, who served as secretary and president of Historic Annapolis, Inc. The bulk of materials document Wright's work with Historic Annapolis, especially with the Paca House garden restoration project. Also included are papers relating to the field of historic preservation in general. This collection is unprocessed, although a preliminary inventory is available.