DOCUMERICA: an early 1970s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) photo documentary project. More than 100 photographers were hired not only to document specific environmental issues, but to capture images of everyday life, showing how we interacted with the environment and capturing the way parts of America looked at that moment in history. By 1974, more than 80,000 photographs had been produced. The National Archives has made 15,000 of these images available.
Harry Schaefer Water cooling towers of the John Amos Power Plant loom over a home located across the Kanawha River, near Poca, West Virginia, August 1973.
John Neubauer One of four bicyclists holds her ears against the roar of the jet taking off from National Airport in Washington D.C., May 1973.
Frank J. Aleksandrowicz Clark Avenue and Clark Avenue bridge, looking east from West 13th Street, obscured by industrial smoke, Cleveland, Ohio, July 1973.
Marc St. Gil Smoke and gas from the burning of discarded automobile batteries pours into the sky near Houston, Texas, July 1972.
Dennis Cowals Looking east along Alaska's Glen Highway, toward Mount Drum at the intersection of the highway and the under-construction Trans-Alaska Pipeline in August 1974. The 48-inch diameter pipeline will cross the roadway between the two vehicles.
Frank Lodge An exhibit at the first symposium on low-pollution power systems development, held at the Marriot Motor Inn, Ann Arbor, Michigan, October 1973. Vehicles and hardware were assembled at the EPA Ann Arbor Laboratory. Photo shows participants looking over the ESB "Sundancer", an Experimental Electric Car.
Charles O'Rear Associate County Court Judge Fred Burns, on his daily bike ride to the Seward County Courthouse in Nebraska, May 1972.
Charles O'Rear Signs crows the roadway in this Las Vegas street scene, May 1972.
Bruce McAllister A train on the Southern Pacific Railroad passes a five-acre pond, which was used as a dump site by area commercial firms, near Ogden, Utah 1972. The acid water, oil, acid clay sludge, dead animals, junked cars and other dump debris were cleaned up by several government groups under the supervision of the EPA.
Danny Lyon Two youths in Uptown, Chicago, Illinois, a neighbourhood of poor white southerners, August 1974.
Danny Lyon Manhattan Bridge Tower in Brooklyn, New York City, framed through nearby buildings, June 1974.
Erik Calonius This house off Route 250, near Cadiz, Ohio, has had its windows and doors knocked out, legally qualifying it as "derelict". A coal company was stripping the land around it in October 1973.
Frank J. Aleksandrowicz An aerial view of old cars secured along a bank of the Cuyahoga River to prevent erosion at Jaite North of Peninsula, Ohio, near Cleveland, September 1975.
Jack Corn One of the daughters of Jerry Rainey, a miner who was out on strike against the Brookside Mining Company, Kentucky, 1974. Notice the outhouses in the background.
Michael Philip Manheim Near Boston's Logan Airport, an airplane comes in for a landing over homes on Neptune Road, 1973.