Pioneer America Society Images Collection

C1: 255
1938–1984 (bulk 1968–1982)
2,271 prints and negatives, 306 35mm slides, 2 cassette tapes

The Pioneer America Society was a nonprofit organization that sought to document, preserve and analyze rural America’s cultural landscape. It was founded by Henry H. Douglas (1903–1987) in 1967. The postwar period contained some of the first large-scale endeavors to protect historic locations and artifacts from industrialization. In a 1972 Pioneer America newsletter article, organization members articulated that people would only find interest in the preservation of history after “information about these structures, their geographic surroundings, and the way of life they supported becomes available.” The Society used photographs, written documents and internal newsletters to accumulate educational information on the history of America.

The Pioneer America Society Images Collection contains the prints, negatives, slides and cassettes that were previously part of the Pioneer America Society Records Collection (Accession 40235). The records collection, located in the Archives, contains information in the form of brochures, postcards, maps, newspapers and more.

Within the Pioneer America Society Images Collection, prints, negatives and slides are organized by location. The collection primarily focuses on farm buildings and the exteriors of homes. Other items focus on schools, churches, railroad stations and streets. The collection also holds two cassette tapes covering steam train journeys in 1971 and 1973. The photos of homes present how the architectural designs of each era were interpreted by everyday people, and those of rural areas capture the structures that once supported life in each community.

The images are from 16 different states, further organized by county, town and subject name. Virginia was the largest subject, with 1,496 images, followed by Maryland with 132 images and West Virginia with 104 images. The Society represented 32 of Virginia’s counties, focusing on the northern and valley regions in places like Fauquier, Highland and Shenandoah counties. Central Virginia has fewer prints, with many located in Nelson County, and Southside Virginia has little to none.

The initials H.H.D. can be found on the back of most prints within the collection, showing the efforts of Pioneer America Society founder and executive director Henry H. Douglas. As a longtime resident of Falls Church, Virginia, perhaps Douglas’s northern location was the reasoning behind the collection’s specific geographic focus. Douglas additionally served as editor in chief for the Pioneer America newsletter until his retirement from Society leadership in 1977.

The Pioneer America Society continues to operate, but in 2015 the organization changed its name to the International Society for Landscape, Place, and Material Culture to promote its worldwide membership and evolving focus. This collection would be useful to those researching the history of rural Virginia or of a specific county, as each photograph gives insight into the vital infrastructure that once supported a community, and what it would have looked like.

Arrangement and Access
The prints and negatives are arranged alphabetically in four boxes. The slides are housed separately in two boxes and the cassettes are located in an additional box. A finding aid is available to locate the image number and title of each item in the collection.

_{Processed by: Brooke Patten
Citation from Quotation Used: “THE PIONEER AMERICA SOCIETY: PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.” Pioneer America 4, no. 2 (1972): 50–52.}