History of American Architecture

The books in this collection bear nineteenth century American imprints, dating mainly from between 1850 and 1880. Currently, approximately 1,500 books are included in this American Memory site. The collection is particularly strong in poetry and in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.

This collection includes digitized versions of books from the UW-Madison collections spanning 1877 to the 1930’s. These books provide instruction on a wide range of topics including cooking, cleaning, laundry, household management and occupational training for young maids. Through them, young girls could learn among other things, the proper way to make a bed, polish the silver, decorate a table, and prepare and serve a nice meal.

a joint project between the College of Environment and Design, University of Georgia and the Digital Library of Georgia, contains approximately 1500 images of important and representative architectural sites and landscapes in the state with an emphasis on Athens and Middle Georgia. The collections, held at the Owens Library in the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia, consist of color slides and black and white photographs taken from the 1940s through the 1980s

The 1,280 images in this collection have been selected from a wide range of sources, most of them dating from the period of slavery.

Of special interest: Prints and Photographs collection, Maps collection.

A searchable website of collections from the Library of Congress. Includes ritten and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.

This Library of Congress collection is comprised of more than 556,900 measured drawings, large-format photographs, and written histories for more than 38,600 historic structures and sites dating from Pre-Columbian times to the twentieth century. This online presentation of the HABS/HAER/HALS collections includes digitized images of measured drawings, black-and-white photographs, color transparencies, photo captions, written history pages, and supplemental materials.

Specialized research collections include historic fire insurance atlases, city directories, building trade catalogs and the records of architects and firms from 1819 to the 1980s.

The Greene & Greene Virtual Archives (GGVA) contains images of drawings, sketches, photographs, correspondence, and other historical documents related to the work of the architects Greene & Greene, the southern California design firm (active 1894-1922) that is often associated with the finest architecture and craftsmanship of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.

These range from around 1830-1910. Not a great search functionality, but should be great to browse!

This Architectural Record site offers over 800 Building Types Studies that have been written up in past issues starting in 2000. The studies offer analyses of a particular building type, with photos, drawings, specifications, descriptions and design solutions. Additional projects are added monthly. The site also offers project portfolios from 2003 to date that focus on popular projects world wide. The portfolios offer detailed information on the people & trades involved in each project. There are photos but no plans for these portfolio projects. Good place to start for those thinking of thesis projects.

This site includes architecture from around the world and across history. It can be searched or browsed by buildings, architects, architectural types, places.

A great resource for US current and historical maps, as well as links to more sites with yet more maps.