Historic American Buildings Survey
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A team from the HABS (left photo from 1934) Poster of the HAER (right) |
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Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) are programs established by the National Park Service to document historical places and objects. In doing so, records are made that contain dimensioned drawings, floor plans and site plans, archive photographs and descriptions in prose form.
In 1933 the National Park Service founded the Historic American Buildings Survey at the suggestion of the then young employed landscape architect Charles E. Peterson . It was founded as a job creation scheme in order to employ architects, draftsmen and photographers who had become unemployed during the Great Depression. Guided by instructions from Washington, DC , the first HABS reporters were given the task of documenting a representative collection of US cultural heritage . By creating an archive of historic architecture in the United States, the HABS compiled a database that served as the primary resource for the emerging conservation movement .
The Historic American Engineering Record program was launched on January 10, 1969 by the National Park Service and the American Society of Civil Engineers . The HAER describes historical mechanical and engineering artifacts. Since then, the combined program has typically been referred to as HABS / HAER. Nowadays the HABS / HAER projects are mostly carried out by students, either during the summer months or to acquire certificates while studying.
In October 2000, the National Park Service and the American Society of Landscape Architects established a permanent sister program, the Historic American Landscapes Survey, which deals with the systematic documentation of historic landscapes in the United States. A forerunner of this project, known for short as HLAS, was the Historic American Landscape and Garden Project (HALGP). Historic gardens in Massachusetts were recorded between 1935 and 1940. This project was funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), but the management and collection of records was assigned to the HABS.
The documentation produced as part of HABS / HAER / HALS is collected by the Library of Congress . As the works of the United States Federal Government, the HABS / HAER / HALS records are in the public domain .
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HABS photograph: First Bank of the United States , Philadelphia (border with HABS number)
HABS drawing: James Madison's Montpelier
NECK drawing: Hale O Piʻ Ilani Heiau, Maui
HAER photograph: Control panel at the Critical Mass Laboratory, Rocky Flats Plant , Colorado
HABS Photograph: Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site , Washington, DC
HABS photograph: Montezuma Castle National Monument , around 1400, Arizona
