The Library of Congress | |
Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present |
|
In a hurry? Save or print these Collection Connections as a single file. Go directly to the collections, Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present, in American Memory, or view a Summary of Resources related to the collections.
The photographs and descriptions in Built in America: The Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) 1933-Present, can be used to develop many critical thinking skills. Documents related to war memorials provide an opportunity to chronicle U.S. conflicts and the different ways in which they were remembered. Picture palaces from the 1920s provide an opportunity to understand the growing elegance and popularity of the motion picture industry. Buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright provide insight into the work of one of the nation's most famous architects. Other materials allow one to assess the conflicting interests of national defense and environmental conservation during the Cold War and to research the rise of power industries during the early-twentieth century.
Chronological Thinking SkillsA search on the phrase, world war memorial, produces a number of examples of monuments commemorating U.S. involvement in national and international conflicts. These works can be used to create a pictorial timeline of wars and to assess the changing architectural styles of the memorials themselves. For example, the Battle Monument in Baltimore, Maryland was completed in 1825 as "the first significant war memorial ever built in the United States," (page 2). The monument was designed to commemorate the September 1814 British attack on the city as did Francis Scott Key's Star Spangled Banner. It employs both Egyptian and Classical architectural elements and includes a sculptured figure at the top, griffins, and two reliefs on the shaft.
Historical Comprehension: Picture PalacesThe motion picture industry grew dramatically during the 1920s. Approximately 100 million people attended movie theaters each week -- almost double that of church attendance. In fact, some people argued that the movie theaters of the era had become the new places of worship. Picture palaces offered a middle-class audience a sense of luxury for the price of admission. Ornate architecture, smoking lounges, powder rooms, and attentive staff created a fantasy world in the theaters long before the first reel of the motion picture began. A search on the phrase, movie theater, produces a number of examples. Loew's Theater was one of the first theaters in Jefferson County, Kentucky. Architect John Eberson, one of the three renowned theater architects of the 1920s, included detailed sconces and figurines in spacious lobbies and vestibules. He even included his own image as a bust among images of more famous men in the theater's vestibule ceiling (page 2).
The decorative style of the movie palace was always its chief character-defining feature. Often the degree of decorative elaboration progressed from exterior to lobby to inner auditorium, providing gradual immersion into the fantasy world within. Styles varied widely from expressions of traditional classicism to exotic idioms and eclectic mixes. (page 20) Picture palaces were often a featured part of a larger commercial center but these palaces (whose numbers peaked between 1925 and 1930) were designed "to rival the fantasy of the motion picture itself. Theatres increased significantly in scale and plan, and seating capacities grew to well over 1000 patrons." (page 19).
Historical Analysis and Interpretation: Frank Lloyd Wright and Organic Architecture
Wright created his largest collection of buildings for the campus of Florida Southern College. After going over budget for the first building, college President, Dr. Ludd Spivey, and Wright agreed to build the campus with student labor. Wrights students designed the campus while "Dr. Spivey's students would then take time from their classes to build the buildings," (page 2). The architect called for the construction of promenades to allow movement through a citrus grove. They were placed at ninety, sixty, and thirty-degree angles to preserve the trees and to protect students from rain showers. However, "Mr. Wright's ecological consideration . . . was thwarted by a heavy freeze which killed the citrus in one night," (page 4). During the Great Depression and World War II, Frank Lloyd Wright attempted to improve the design of houses for middle- and upper-class homeowners. Descriptions of the Walter Lowell House (1950) in Iowa explains how occupants and nature harmonized "psychologically and spiritually" through a design that employed natural light and reduced the amount of furniture needed: "Tables, shelving, cabinets, and some seating are built into the house. . . . This room is skillfully subdivided so that one portion provides the space and built-in shelving, sideboard, and tables needed for dining," (page 4). Additional information on Frank Lloyd Wright is available in the Library of Congress exhibit, Designs for an American Landscape, 1922-1932.
Historical Issue-Analysis and Decision-Making: Missile DefenseThe end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War prompted the United States military to create a missile defense system. In 1954, the Army introduced the Nike Ajax guided-missile system as an improvement on anti-aircraft artillery. It was the first step in an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union over long- and short-range missile silos. Four years later, the second-generation missile, the Nike Hercules, was designed to carry nuclear warheads and destroy incoming explosives and nuclear weapons. A search on Nike missile produces images and data pertaining to a variety of missile defense sites across the nation. For example, the Mt. Gleason Nike Missile Site was the first missile base constructed in California's Angeles Forest.
The jurisdiction of the National Forest Service changed in 1969, however, when Congress established the National Environmental Policy Act. This legislation was created to "declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment." The report notes that the Forest Service, "backed by federal legislation now, pressured the Army to dispose of the military installation in a manner consistent with the Forest Service's environmental management standards," (page 37). All Nike Missile defense systems began deactivation three years later when President Richard Nixon signed the SALT I treaty to limit anti-ballistic missile systems in the United States and the Soviet Union.
Historic Research Capabilities
Other featured technologies include traditional constructions such as the Gregg Shoals Dam & Power Plant in South Carolina as well as alternative sources such as New York's Gardiner Windmill and the Death Valley Ranch Solar Heater. The latter technology is an example of the solar industry that thrived in southern California before World War II and the widespread use of natural gas.
|
home | top of page |
The Library of Congress | American Memory | Contact us |
Last updated 09/26/2002 |