Preservation Iowa Section 5.1: Print and Online Resources

Find Your Preservation Story – Researching Preservation Stories

Like any archaeologist or newspaper reporter, you’ve got to do some digging to uncover a story. While it’s possible that you might get your hands dirty in the process, you might also start with what’s readily available in special collections, on the internet, or even by oral interviews with historians or other relevant storytellers.

To begin uncovering your story, use this document to find the storytellers who can add details and events to your story. The first part of this document, lists helpful places and organizations where you can access historical records or even reach historians to learn more about the building whose story you hope to find. The second part of this document lists resources that can be accessed from the comfort of your classroom as a sort of “virtual field trip” experience for you and your students.

Print Resources

A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia and Lee McAlester, Knopf, 1990.

A Field Guide to Contemporary Architecture by Carole Rifkind, Penguin Putnam, 1998.

All About Old Buildings: The Whole Preservation Catalog edited by Diane Maddex, The National Trust for Preservation, The Preservation Press, 1985.

American Architecture: An Illustrated Encyclopedia by Cyril M. Harris, W. W. Norton, 1998.

American Vernacular Buildings and Interiors: 1870-1960 by Herbert Gottfried and Jan Jennings, W.W. Norton and Co., 2009.

An Age of Barns by Eric Sloane, Ballantine Books, 1974.

Discovering the History of Your House and Your Neighborhood by Betsy J. Green, Santa Monica Press, 2002.

Barns of the Midwest by Allen Noble, Ohio University Press, 1995.

Buildings of Iowa, by David Gebhard and Gerald Mansheim, Oxford University Press, 1993.

Dictionary of Building Preservation by Ward Bucher, Preservation Press, 1996.

Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms by John Blumenson, American Association for State and Local History, 1977.

“If Ordinary Walls Could Talk: Piecing Together the History of My House” by Mark Speltz, Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring 2008.

“If These Walls Could Talk: A Primer for Tracing House Histories” by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, NGS NewsMagazine , December 2004.

Iowa’s Historical Architects: A Biographical Dictionary by Wesley I. Shank, University of Iowa Press, 1999.

House Histories: A Guide to Tracing the Genealogy of Your Home by Sally Light, Golden Hill Press, 1989.

“House Hunting” by Maureen A. Taylor, Family Tree Magazine, September 2008.

“Living in the Lap of History,” by Reid Forgrave, The Des Moines Register, March 25, 2006.

Prairie Grass Roots: An Iowa Small Town in the Early Twentieth Century by Thomas Morain, Iowa State University Press, 1988.

Modern Architecture Since 1900 by William J.R. Curtis, Phaidon Press, 2001.

“Researching a Historic Property” by Eleanor O’Donnell, National Register Bulletin, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1998.

The Iowa Farm House (1857-1950): A Literature Survey by Jean Sizemore, The State Historical Society Library, 1979.

The Prairie School in Iowa by Richard Guy Wilson and Sidney K. Robinson, Iowa State University Press, 1977.

Twentieth-Century Building Materials: History and Conservation, Thomas C. Jester, McGraw-Hill, 1995.

USA Modern Architecture in History by Gwendolyn Wright, Reaktion Books, Ltd., 2008.

Victorian Architecture of Iowa by William Plymat Jr., Palladian Publishing, 1997.

What Style Is It?: A Guide to American Architecture, by John C. Poppeliers, Preservation Press, 1986.

Without Right Angles: The Round Barns of Iowa by Lowell Soike, Iowa State Historical Department, 1983.

Reference Center Documents

State Historical Society of Iowa Digital Resources: https://iowaculture.gov/history/research/collections/digital-resources

The State Historical Society of Iowa along with local archives and historical collections are good locations to find the following:

Architectural Journals, Cemetery Records, Census Records, Commercial Histories, Community/ County Histories, Court Documents, Directories and Gazetteers, Estate Records, Family/ Personal Papers, Genealogical Records, Land Records, Maps and Plats, Military Records, Newspapers, Photographs and Postcards, and Tax Records.

Online Resources

National

Agricultural Census Reports 1840-1950: http://agcensus.mannlib.cornell.edu/AgCensus/homepage.do

A Historical Bibliography of Architecture, Landscape and Urbanism in the United States Since World War II: http://www.sah.org/docs/default-source/bibliographies/recent-past-bibliography.pdf?sfvrsn=4

The Cultural Landscape Foundation: http://tclf.org/

DOCOMOMO_US (International Committee for the Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites, and Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement—US Chapter): http://www.docomomo-us.org/

Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives: https://www.nps.gov/tps/tax-incentives/taxdocs/about-tax-incentives-2012.pdf

The Jefferson Highway Association: http://www.jeffersonhighway.org/

Mesker Brothers Storefronts of America: https://meskerbrothers.wordpress.com/

National Barn Alliance: http://barnalliance.org/

National Register of Historic Places: https://www.nps.gov/nr/

National Trust for Historic Preservation: https://savingplaces.org/

OldHouse Online (Old House Journal): http://www.oldhouseonline.com/

PrairieMod: https://prairiemod.com/

Preservation Action: http://www.preservationaction.org/

Preservation Directory: http://www.preservationdirectory.com/HistoricalPreservation/Home.aspx

U.S. Patents: https://www.uspto.gov/

Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF): http://www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org/