Collections by Subject: Historic Preservation
A Selected List of Holdings in Special Collections, 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.
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Archaeology in Annapolis Records, 1882-2010. 137.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Archaeology in Annapolis Records document the activities of this organization from its founding in 1981 to the present. Archaeology in Annapolis is a part of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Maryland, College Park and over the last 30 years it has conducted city wide archaeological excavations of sites across Annapolis. This collection documents the work conducted at more than forty sites in Annapolis as well as on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Included are site reports, field notes, artifact catalogs, articles and papers, materials related to public programming, and photographs and slides.
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Orin M. Bullock, Jr. papers, 1920-1986. 66.00 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
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.
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Gene A. Chesley papers, 1800-1984. 19.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Charles Wallace Collins papers, 1915-1972. 13.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Ernest A. Connally papers, 1967-1997. 24.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Hiroshi Daifuku papers, 1954-1980. 1.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Joan Dillon papers, 1862-1998. 10.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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John Carroll Dunn papers, 1950-1998. 0.5 linear feet and 3 mapcase drawers.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
John Carroll Dunn was an architect who worked in the Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania region from the 1950s through the 1990s. The Papers of John Carroll Dunn are composed of architectural drawings and plans for commercial and residential structures in the Mid-Atlantic region.
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Henry Chandlee Forman papers, 1919-1989. 5.50 linear feet and 85 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Margot Gayle Papers, 1948-2007. 38.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
This collection documents the professional activities of preservationist and writer Margot Gayle from 1948 until her death in 2008. Gayle worked to preserve historic cast-iron structures, principally in New York City. She is best known for her leading role in establishing New York's SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District. Gayle founded and was active in numerous professional organizations, most notably the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture and the Victorian Society in America. Her publications include Cast-Iron Architecture in New York (1974) and Cast-Iron Architecture in America: the Significance of James Bogardus (1998), the latter which she co-authored with her daughter, Carol Gayle. Gayle's dedication to historic preservation was recognized with several prominent awards given during her lifetime, including the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Honor Award, and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservations' Annual Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Greenbelt Homes, Inc., 1935-1975. 7 reels of microfilm.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) Collection, 1933-1969. 104 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Celia Holland papers, 1861-1993. 12.50 linear feet, 3012 slides, 338 photographs.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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. Celia 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.
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Henry Powell Hopkins papers, 1886-1959. 3.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Charles Hosmer papers, 1855-1991. 30.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Richard Hubbard Howland papers, 1879-2006. 3.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Institute of American Deltiology Postcard Collection, 1870-. approximately 104,000 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Institute of American Deltiology (IAD) collection is estimated to contain over one million postcards. The National Trust Library received this collection through a generous donation from Donald Brown. The Library currently holds approximately 104,000 cards from the collection, depicting localities in 36 states and territories, including the District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The postcards are dated from 1870s to the 2000s, with the bulk of the cards dated post 1939. The Library will continue to receive and make available to the public additional postcards from the collection in the upcoming years. Researchers may also want to consult a related postcard collection at the National Trust Library, the National Trust Library Historic Postcard Collection.
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Jandl-Stevenson Collection, 1908-1986. 12.25 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Theodore R. McCann papers, 1945-1989. 19.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Richard Moe papers, 1861-2001. 16.75 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Richard Palmer Moe was born on November 27, 1936 in Duluth, Minnesota. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Williams College in 1959 and a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1966. He began a career in politics as an administrative assistant to Minneapolis Mayor Arthur Naftalin (1961-1962) and then served as administrative assistant to Minnesota Lieutenant Governor A.M. Keith (1963-1967). In 1967, Moe became the finance director for the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party and, in 1969, became the second youngest chairman of the party, a post he held until 1972 when he joined the staff of Senator Walter F. Mondale as an administrative assistant. In 1977, Moe became the chief of staff for Vice President Mondale during the Carter administration. In 1981, Moe joined the Washington, D.C., office of the law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he became a partner in 1986. During his time at the law firm, he took time off to participate in Walter Mondale's run for president in 1984 as well as serving in advisory roles during the 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns. In 1993, Moe became the seventh president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a position he held until 2010. Moe's first book, The Last Full Measure: the Life and Death of the Minnesota Volunteers, was published in 1993 as well. The Moe papers include documents related to Moe's political and legal career and consist primarily of correspondence, memos, campaign files, clippings, oral histories, and photographs.
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William J. Murtagh papers, 1923-2004. 50.25 linear feet and 1155 items.
Location: University of Maryland
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.
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National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers records, 1976-2006. 37.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers (NCSHPO) is the professional association of the state government officials who carry out the national historic preservation program as delegates of the Secretary of the Interior. The records of the NCSHPO consist of federal agency files, individual state files containing state surveys and need assessments, congressional testimony, annual meeting minutes, and conference related material.
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National Trust Library Historic Postcard Collection, 1893-1970. approximately 20,000 items.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The National Trust Library Historic Postcard Collection contains approximately 20,000 postcards dating from 1893 to the 1970s with the bulk of the cards from the years 1900 to 1920. The collection represents over 3,000 locations in the United States, as well as a small number of foreign countries. There is a particular strength in cards from the New England states although all 50 states are documented. Most of the cards were commercially produced and depict early 20th century scenes from small towns to large cities. There is also a group of about 900 cards for which location could not be determined. These are arranged by subject. Researchers may also want to consult a related postcard collection at the National Trust Library, the Institute for American Deltiology Collection.
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Navy Legacy Resource Management Program Collection, 1970-1988. 32.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Charles E. Peterson papers, 1927-2004. 590 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Preservation Action records, 1975-1998. 40.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Preservation Maryland Archives, 1931-2006. 100.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
The Archives of Preservation Maryland consists of correspondence, reports, publications, blueprints, and research files related to the work of the organization. Preservation Maryland, founded in 1931, is the state's oldest historic preservation organization and is dedicated to preserving Maryland's historic buildings, neighborhoods, landscapes and archaeological sites through outreach, funding, and advocacy. The collection is unprocessed.
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Professional Restoration records, 1990-2003. 60.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Frederick L. Rath, Jr. papers, 1917-1998. 32.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Sears Roebuck Blueprints Collection, 1920-1930. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
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.
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Anne St. Clair Wright papers, 1950-1995. 26.00 linear feet.
Location: State of Maryland and Historical Collections
Anne St. Clair Wright was a founder of Historic Annapolis, Inc., today the Historic Annapolis Foundation. She served four terms as president, and later as chair and chair emeritus of the Board, and chair of the William Paca Garden Restoration Committee. Her leadership and influence greatly impacted the historic preservation movement in Annapolis and other historic towns and cities, for which she received numerous awards and recognition. The Anne St. Clair Wright papers consist of materials documenting her work with Historic Annapolis, as well as her personal life and other historic preservation interests. These materials include memos and correspondence, minutes and agendas, reports, research notes, administrative and financial files, writings, historic site files, photographs, publications, and newspaper clippings.