Researching Historic Properties:
Internet Resources

Research is usually a critical component of historic preservation activities whether you are writing a National Register nomination, developing interpretation for a house museum, or planning a rehabilitation project. A number of resources to help you trace the history of a building, structure, or site are available online.

General Guides to Researching Historic Properties
Preservation Hotline #8: Tracing the History of Your Historic Building, published by the State Historic Preservation Office, gives tips on how to begin your research and the types of sources that are available in South Carolina.

Researching a Historic Property, published by the National Park Service, includes research hints and guides to general sources, architectural records, architectural styles, and maps.

• Guides to Photographs, Architectural Records, and Maps
• Guides to Government Documents, Private Manuscripts, published records, and maps

Southern Aviation School Hanger, built in 1932
Camden, Kershaw County
South Carolina Inventory of Historic Properties
SC Archives and History Center

General
The South Carolina Inventory of Historic Properties, maintained by the State Historic Preservation Office, includes the records of the Statewide Survey of Historic Properties. The inventory includes photographs, map locations, and brief descriptive and historical information documenting historic buildings, structures, sites, objects, and landscapes in every county in the state. Relatively few properties have been recorded in some counties, but in others thousands have been documented. The records date from the mid-1970s to the present. A county-by-county guide to the Inventory of Historic Properties is available online. If the guide indicates that the area in which you are interested has been surveyed, you can view the inventory records in the Reference Room at the South Carolina Archives and History Center. Follow this link for information about research at the Archives and History Center.

Nominations for South Carolina properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places are also available for reading in the Reference Room at the Archives and History Center. The National Register nomination files are more extensive than the Inventory of Historic Properties files. They include photographs, architectural descriptions, historical information, and maps for each listing. Photographs, text of the nomination forms and a summary narrative are available online. You can view the records for a county, or you can search the records by individual, location, or topic using the Archives Online Records Index.  (On the Search Page, select the database, "National Register Properties").

ArchSite is an online Geographic Information System that enables researchers to quickly determine if a cultural resources survey has been performed and/or if any cultural resources and/or historic properties are recorded within a specific project area.

Built in America includes the records of the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) from 1933 to the present. HABS/HAER, a program of the National Park Service, documents important architectural, engineering, and industrial sites throughout the United States. The collection, which is maintained by the Library of Congress, includes large-format photographs, measured drawings, and written histories. Many South Carolina properties are included in the collection, which you can search online by keyword, subject, or geographic location.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, the Sanborn National Insurance Diagram Bureau (later the Sanborn Map Company) produced maps providing structural and urban environmental information needed by insurance underwriters. The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of South Carolina collection includes over 4,600 sheets covering 97 South Carolina towns and cities from 1884 to the 1960s. The maps show the footprints of buildings and provide information about the number of stories, building materials, and uses. The South Caroliniana Library has digitized the maps for South Carolina and made them available online at www.sc.edu/library/digital/collections/sanborn.html . You can search online by city, year, or county.

Lee Library, Claflin College, Orangeburg
Photographed in 1986 by HABS/HAER (1 of 17 photos)
Built in America, Library of Congress 

The History of South Carolina Slide Collection was developed in 1989 by Dr. Constance Schulz of the History Department at the University of South Carolina to provide a slide collection covering all aspects of South Carolina history for use in schools. In 2000, South Carolina Educational Television digitized the images and made them available online. The collection includes many historic photographs or illustrations of buildings, structures, and landscapes from across the state. The images are indexed by topic, county, and subject.

Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920 includes over 25,000 photographic images, mostly of the eastern United States. The Detroit Photographic Company, later the Detroit Publishing Company, produced color postcards, prints, and albums for sale to the American public. There are 192 photographs from South Carolina documenting buildings and sites in Aiken, Charleston, the Isle of Palms, Otranto, Summerville, and scenes along the Ashley River. The collection is available online through the Library of Congress.

Outdoor Sculpture
The Inventory of American Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum includes descriptions of outdoor sculpture recorded by the Save Outdoor Sculpture (SOS) project. In South Carolina, the State Museum took the lead in creating the inventory. Follow this link to http://www.siris.si.edu. Then, under the heading Smithsonian American Art Museum Research Databases, click on "Search Art Inventories." On the search page, type in "outdoor sculpture—south carolina" under "Object Type Browse." This will give you an index to the South Carolina listings by location. The inventory includes outdoor sculpture in 60 South Carolina communities.

Railroad Stations
The South Carolina RR Stations website includes photographs of railroad stations across the state indexed by town or city. Many of the images are historic photographs, while others are more recent.

Schools
The School Insurance Photographs, ca. 1935-1952 series at the South Carolina Archives and History Center includes photographs made between ca. 1935 and 1952 of approximately 2,600 schools in South Carolina. The photographs were made by the Sinking Fund Commission, a state agency that inspected and provided insurance for public schools. The collection includes both African American and white schools for most counties in the state. You can view the photographs on-line by clicking on http://www.archivesindex.sc.gov/ and searching the database. (Under Record Group, select 'School Insurance Photographs, 1935-1952')

Ridge Spring High School, Ridge Spring, Saluda County
School Insurance Photographs, ca. 1935-1952
SC Archives and History Center

The Jackson Davis Collection of African American Educational Photographs at the University of Virginia Library includes over 6,000 photographs of African American schools, students, and teachers made throughout the southeastern United States in the first half of the twentieth century. Jackson Davis was an educational reformer and amateur photographer, who was affiliated with the General Education Board in New York City from 1915-1947. The collection includes over 500 photographs made in South Carolina, which are available on-line at http://mcgregor.lib.virginia.edu/davis/search.html.

Rosenwald Schools: Beacons for Black Education in the American South includes plans for the Rosenwald School buildings that were constructed across the South between 1910 and the early 1930s. Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald (president of Sears, Roebuck, and Company) initiated the Rosenwald School building program to improve the quality of public education for African American children in the South. The plans were prepared by Tuskegee Institute (1915) and later the Rosenwald Foundation office in Nashville. The drawings includes elevations and floor plans for the schools, which ranged in size from one to seven teachers. There are also plans for industrial buildings, privies, and homes for teachers.