Historic Preservation (HPres) - AIADO | HPres Research Guide - Research Guides at School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Visiting Crerar Library

Read before you go to Crerar Library

Starting November 1, 2021, Crerar Library and all U of C libraries are open to visitors. Just visiting Crerar? Simply bring the documentation below to the Crerar circulation desk.

Must show proof of COVID-19 vaccination
Must provide a state of government issued photo ID
U of C's Visiting Crerar Library information page.

To visit the Regenstein Library, you must go to the ID & Privileges Office first.

Can't Find the Article You Are Looking For?

Request a copy of an article from another library. It usually takes 2-5 days.

Interlibrary Loan Request Form

Liaison to Historic Preservation

Holly Stec Dankert

Contact:

hdankert@saic.edu

312.899.1434

Where to Find Historic Preservation Resources

Best Resources for Historic Preservation

Consider exploring these resources relevant to historic preservation research. Many are free, but databases licensed by Flaxman Library will prompt you for your ARTIC login (e.g. American Periodical Series Online, Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals, etc.). To see a full list of databases for Historic Preservation - check out our Databases A-Z: Historic Preservation list.

American Historical Periodicals from the American Antiquarian Society This link opens in a new window
Series 1-5: Full text historical providing a history of the American people and the growth of the USA from Colonial America through the 20th century.
American Periodicals Series Online This link opens in a new window
Technology, industry, agriculture, and architecture are strongly represented in magazines from the Center for Research Libraries (e.g. Building Age, Concrete, Construction News, The National Builder); from the late 1800s to early 1900s.

APA Index to PAS reports
Planning Advisory Service Reports including historic reports.
APT Building Technology Heritage Library
Collection of American and Canadian, pre-1964 architectural trade catalogs, house plan books and technical building guides.

Architectural Digest Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Digitized edition of the international design magazine from 1923 through 2011, includes advertising.
Art Design & Architecture Collection This link opens in a new window
Includes the full-text of many contemporary art magazines (e.g., Artforum International) plus scholarly journals.
Arts + Architecture ProFiles This link opens in a new window
Provides information about more than 8,000 artists, architects, designers, craftspeople, artists and design-related organizations that were influential in the 20th century world of design. Dates covered: 1894-1986.

Arts:Search - Architecture Magazines
List of digitized collection of architecture & design magazines from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Searchable here.
ASTM standards in building codes
Books available in Flaxman Library REF. TA404.5 .A885 2007

Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles on architectural design, history and practice; landscape architecture; historic preservation; interior design and urban planning. Includes citations from Burnham Index to Architectural Literature.

Chicago Building Code
Flaxman Library also owns a print copy (Main Stacks call no. KFX1242 .A1963 2007).
Chicago Building Permits Digital Collection 1872-1954
The collection consists of 95 ledger books that were microfilmed and then digitized for online use, along with a card catalog index to the ledgers by address.
Chicago Landmarks
Chicago Street Renumbering (1909)
Chicago Zoning Map
Search by address or area, customize the map to get wards, parcels, schools, water, parks, cemeteries, forest preserves and landmark status.
Digital Research Library of Illinois
Hundreds of 19th and 20th century antique books, now in searchable PDF format
DOCOMOMO
International working party for the documentation and conservation of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods of the modern movement.
Getty Research Portal
Free online search platform providing worldwide access to an extensive collection of digitized art history texts from a range of institutions
Google Books
Millions of books scanned cover to cover. To find fully scanned books that you can read online select Full view only in the Search: option.
Google Scholar
Google's index of scholary and peer reviewed literature.
HathiTrust Digital Library
Digitized books & documents from research libraries. SAIC is not a member; full-text limited to public domain items.
Illinois Fire Insurance Maps online (FIMo)
Requires a Chicago Public Library (CPL) Card. SAIC does not subscribe to this resource, but it is a great way to find buildings when searching by address.
Inland Architect
Early issues are scanned as part of Michigan's HathiTrust collection.
Interlibrary Loan Request Form
Internet Archive
Many digitized books can be checked out for a limited period. Continually growing collection offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text archive of all JSTOR content including scholarly humanities, arts, and social sciences journals. Note: does NOT include the most current 3-5 years.
National Geographic Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Includes advertising for interiors and building trades.
National Park Service Preservation Briefs This link opens in a new window
Guides for preserving, rehabilitating and restoring historic buildings. Includes bibliographies; 1975 to present.

Omniclass Construction Classification System
Full building life cycle classification system used to track the standards and tasks involved in all aspects of a building project. Works in conjunction with LEED, UniFormat, MasterFormat, etc., concentrating on complete building operation issues for owners.
Ryerson & Burnham Libraries
Research library of the Art Institute of Chicago; you cannot check out books but can make an appointment to use materials in their reading room. See this link for instructions on making an appointment.

SAIC Thesis Repository This link opens in a new window
Contains the School's theses from November 2013 to the present. Many theses are viewable on campus only (with ARTIC/SAIC login), however, some have been designated as Open Access by the author and can be read online.
Sanborn Insurance Maps for Illinois This link opens in a new window
Provides digitized historic fire insurance maps for most cities and towns in Illinois. The large scale plans chart the growth and development of these communities. 1867-1970.

Sanborn Insurance Maps - LIbrary of Congress
Digitized in full color, this collections includes all states in the USA that are part of the Library of Congress collection.
Sanborn Insurance Maps - UIC How To Guide
Sanborn Insurance Maps INDEX for Chicago
Sweet's 1906-1922 Digitized
Volumes from 1906-1922 are available at HathiTrust.org
Sweet's 1930 manufactures catalog
In reference stacks, 6th floor Sharp, call number: REF TA215 .S924 1930 v.1-4
Sweet's file for builders
1934-1952 volumes can be requested through I-Share from UIUC.

USModernist This link opens in a new window
Open access digital magazine archive for residential Modernist architecture. See USModernist Library for full-text PDFs of many important design journals from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
World Heritage Sites: Africa (Zamani & Aluka Projects) This link opens in a new window
Visual, contextual, and non-spatial documentation of African heritage sites. These materials serve researchers in African studies, anthropology, archaeology, architecture, art history, Diaspora studies, folklore and literature, geography, and history, as well as those focused on geomatics, advanced visual and spatial technologies, historic preservation, and urban planning. More downloadable datasets and spatial documentation for the Zamani Project can be found here.
World's Fairs and Expositions, Visions of Tomorrow This link opens in a new window
Collection of primary-source documents about significant expositions from 1840 to 1923 from the Smithsonian.

List of all Architecture / Interior Architecture databases @ Flaxman Library