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Virginia Historical Inventory



     The Virginia Historical Inventory

     The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce the availability of
     the Virginia Historical Inventory Digital Project, funded in part
     by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in 1997.

     The Virginia Historical Inventory (VHI) is a collection of
     detailed reports, photographs, and maps, documenting the architectural,
     cultural, and family histories of thousands of 18th- and 19th-century
     buildings in communities across Virginia.  Workers for the Works
     Progress Administration (WPA) project documented, assessed, and
     photographed early structures (many of which do not survive today),
     creating a pictorial and textual prism through which architects,
     genealogists, economists, social historians, journalists, researchers,
     and the general public can study a unique record of Virginia's past.

     The collection consists of more than 19,300 survey reports (consisting
     of approximately 70,000 pages), more than 6,200 photographs, and 103
     annotated county and city maps.  The project was created in the late
     1930s by the Virginia Writers' Project, a branch of the federally
     funded Works Progress Administration (WPA).  Using a standard format,
     the field-workers for the VHI prepared survey reports on each
     structure, with extensive details taken from onsite investigation,
     research in court records and other local resources, and personal
     interviews with county residents.  The reports include such information
     as descriptions of the buildings and their surroundings, the history of
     the building, chronological lists of owners, architectural features,
     and historical significance.  For most buildings, field-workers
     completed a standardized "architectural description" form, giving
     extensive architectural details such as size, type of building
     material, weatherboarding, cornices, shutters, porch, and entryway, and
     on interior features such as the stairway, basement, and styles
     of doors, layout, and other distinctive features.  Field-workers often
     added pencil or pen-and-ink sketches to their reports.  In addition,
     they often included photographs of the buildings they documented.

     Unlike the more well-known Historic American Buildings Survey, which
     documents prominent historical structures, the VHI was specifically
     charged with describing the vernacular architecture and history of
     everyday buildings: homes, workplaces, churches, and public buildings.
     This aspect of the project makes the existence of photographs that much
     more valuable (and poignant): many of these structures no longer exist,
     and the VHI photographs may be the only extant visual records of them.

     VHI writers did not restrict their reports to structures, however.
     There are also reports on cemeteries (often including detailed
     tombstone information), antiques, historical events, and personages, as
     well as transcriptions of land grants, wills, deeds, diaries, and
     correspondence.

     The Virginia Writers' Project office in Richmond took the further step
     of annotating county and city maps, primarily ones published by the
     Virginia Department of Transportation in 1936, by adding numbers in red
     ink indicating the locations of documented structures, with the map
     number stamped on the corresponding report.

     To accomplish the online presentation of the VHI, the DLP has digitized
     from microfilm all of the survey reports, scanned from the original
     prints all of the photographs, and prepared full-level cataloging
     records for each of the reports and photographs.  In cooperation with
     VTLS, Inc., the Library has also developed an interactive digital
     interface for the maps. Finally, the DLP has collected together within
     one interface links to all the material available for a specific
     report.

     The VHI digital project makes it possible for a user to search the
     survey report database, view the image of the report, then retrieve the
     corresponding map and the photograph. Or, the researcher may search the
     interface to find a specific geographical location, and then review the
     specific survey report for that site. Or, a researcher may search the
     photographs and retrieve the corresponding survey report and map to
     provide a context for each image.  An additional feature makes it
     possible for a researcher to choose a particular locality, then view
     the locations and reports for categories of structures, such as
     churches, dwellings, taverns, school buildings, cemeteries, commercial
     buildings, bridges, and historic sites.

     The URL for the Library of Virginia is http://www.lva.lib.va.us and the
     VHI resource is available on the Digital Library Program Home Page.

     For more information contact Elizabeth Roderick, Director, Digital
     Library Program, The Library of Virginia eroderick@lva.lib.va.us

--
Elizabeth Roderick                              email (eroderick@lva.lib.va.us)
Director, Digital Library Program               email (eroderic@iglou.com)
The Library of Virginia                         phone  (804) 692-3761
800 E. Broad Street                             fax    (804) 692-3771
Richmond, VA  23219

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                      http://www.lva.lib.va.us
                  The LVA Digital Library Program
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