Series 1. Research Files -- Historic Buildings, 1810–2002

This sub-series includes the materials that Kemp and the IHTIA collected and produced while studying, documenting, and preserving historic buildings. Kemp mostly studied the engineering principles behind buildings, and primarily focused on non-ornate industrial buildings.

Formats include correspondence, reports, engineering drawings, photographic prints, photographic negatives, photographic slides, student papers, budget lists, pamphlets, book excerpts, clippings, minutes, report drafts, and maps. Significant amounts of the material are facsimiles.

Subjects include the Wheeling Custom House (also known as West Virginia Independence Hall) in Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia; and farms and homesteads in West Virginia. Highlights include Kemp’s correspondence reflecting on his work on the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia.

Research on historic buildings may also appear in the following series: “Kemp’s Library,” “Kemp’s Professional Writings,” “Kemp’s Other Professional Activities,” and “Oversize Materials.” Research on historic buildings may also appear in the following sub-series within the series “Research Files”: “Industrial structures,” “Building materials,” and “Engineers, the history of engineering, and general historical topics.” Kemp also discusses his work on the Wheeling Custom House in his oral histories in the series “Oral Histories.”