Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, American Memory, Library of Congress
Heritage Documentation Programs, National Park Service, including:
HABS Production Notes (archived site), including:
Authorized under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, the National Register of Historic Places is the United States' official list of over 80,000 cultural resources--districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects--designated as especially worthy of preservation. While the National Register is administered by the National Park Service, under NHPA each state appoints its own State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) which serves to coordinate preservation efforts at the local, state, and national levels. State Historic Preservation Offices are often the best starting point for pursuing preservation information or procedures for a given site. See:
National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service
National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, As Amended, National Park Service
American Association for State and Local History
American Cultural Resources Association
American Folklore Society
American Institute of Architects
Association for Preservation Technology International
International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and US/ICOMOS
National Center for Preservation Technology & Training
National Preservation Institute
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Organization of American Historians
Preservation Action
Recent Past Preservation Network
Society for Commericial Archaeology
Society for American Archaeology
Society for Historical Archaeology
Society for Industrial Archaeology
Society of Architectural Historians
Many of these institutions not only preserve and display historic architecture and material culture, but conduct extensive research programs as well as make their specialized library resources available to researchers.
Digital Collections
Finding Aids, Guides, Directories
Free Publications Available on the Web
Subscription Databases
In most cases, these resources will be available at larger research libraries, as well as through campus-based or regional library networks. Many databases beyond the few listed here will be useful to researchers in vernacular architecture study.
We welcome your suggested additions to these listings, contact us.