Conference Paper

Author

Kemp, Emory L.

Title

Current Issues and Future Directions for Engineering Heritage in the USA

In

Sustaining Heritage: Second International and Thirteenth National Engineering Heritage Conference and NSW Railways Seminar

Imprint

Engineers Australia, Sydney, New South Wales, 2005, pp. 148-157

ISBN/ISSN

085825820X

Url

https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.068520103120556

Abstract

An American perspective on the current status in the United States of the documentation and preservation of historic engineering works is the focus of this paper. To provide a context for the field of preservation, efforts to preserve historic engineering works are discussed in terms of salient events in the overall preservation movement in the country. To illustrate current activities, examples such as documentation to national standards, established jointly by the US Park Service and the Library of Congress are presented. Selected illustrations are included to demonstrate this level of documentation. Both federal and state government, seeking to protect historic structures form demolition or severe modification, face the crucial issue of funding the preservation of engineering works. With the use of public funds, historic structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places are protected and subjected to critical review of their historic significance. From the historian's perspective, the deposition of historic information in libraries and government archives is essential in producing accurate analysis and published histories. A number of principle archives are identified. Attempts have been made to educate professionals and the public in general about the history of technology and industrial archaeology, and integrate this information into mainstream historical studies. Despite many attempts this has not been entirely successful. Education remains an important issue with international implications.

Related Published resources

isPartOf

• Sustaining Heritage: Second International and Thirteenth National Engineering Heritage Conference and NSW Railways Seminar (Sydney, New South Wales: Engineers Australia, 2005), 268 pp, https://search.informit.org/doi/book/10.3316/informit.085825820X. Details