David Plowden Steel Manufacturing Photographs
name: label: Creator
content: Plowden, David
label: Former owner
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: Former owner
content: National Museum of American History (U.S.). Division of Work and Industry
topic: label: Topic
content: Blast furnaces
label: Topic
content: Steel industry and trade
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Collection donated by David Plowden, 1985.
label: Provenance
content: Donated by David Plowden to the Museum's Division of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (now Division of Work and Industry) in 1984.
creator: label: Creator
content: Plowden, David
setName: label: See more items in
content: David Plowden Steel Manufacturing Photographs
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: David Plowden (1932-) is an American photographer of urban cities, steam trains, American farmlands, and small towns.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 0.15 Cubic feet (1 box)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1981
custodhist: label: Ownership and Custodial History
content: Transferred from the Division of Work and Industry to the Archives Center in 2007.
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.1020
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Photographs
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Collection is arranged into one series.
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Alison Oswald, archivist, 2018.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs -- 20th century
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents note
content: Photographs documenting the steel industry. Subjects include blast furnaces, steel mills, ore barges, and other related subjects.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Materials in the Archives Center

David Plowden North American Bridge Photographs

Photographs Plowden took of bridges, aqueducts and viaducts all over the United States and a few in Canada. The photographs are of various types of bridges: truss, suspension, covered. Some photographs feature close-up details of architectural elements, such as arches, chains, towers and ornamentation.

Materials at Other Organizations

Chicago History Museum

David Plowden photograph collection

Includes photographs of steel mills and coke plants, automobile assembly factories, oil refineries, printing plants, food processing plants, and other industries in Chicago's Central Manufacturing District and other locations in the Chicago metropolitan area and northern Indiana. Includes transportation yards for railroads and trucks, and some scenes of the Calumet River and the Indiana Harbor. Many buildings show the demise of industry in these locations.

Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

David Plowden photographs and papers, 1948-2011

This collection consists of photographs and papers that document the work of David Plowden as a photographer and author, 1948-2011. 

Buffalo History Museum

David Plowden photographic collection, 1968-1985

featuring Buffalo waterfront scenes, grain elevators, steel mills, and Great Lakes steamers. Also includes photographs of places other than Buffalo.

Library of Congress

Photographs of architecture, landscapes, and transportation in the United States and Canada

hese large-format photographs show details of vernacular architecture buildings such as barns; rural, small town, industrial, and urban landscape scenes; and transportation (railroads, ferries, steamships, and roadways).