About the Header Images

The images are all from the EPA’s “Documerica” project, a 1970’s program to send photographers across the U.S. to “record the state of the environment.” All images are courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration and are in the public domain. The most convenient way to access the images is through the Flickr website.

The selected images represent the “state of the environment” before the 1970 Clean Air Act was fully implemented and before the 1977 and 1990 Amendments were enacted. Please don’t forget those times!

Attributions for individual images:

The George Washington Bridge in Heavy Smog. View toward the New Jersey Side of the Hudson River.

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: NWDNS-412-DA-5848

Date: 05/1973

Photographer: Higgins, Chester, 1946-

Burning Discarded Automobile Batteries

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-11382 

Date: 07/1972

Photographer: St. Gil, Marc, 1924-1992 

Location: Houston, Texas

The Atlas Chemical Company Belches Smoke across Pasture Land in Foreground.

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-3643 

Date: 06/1972

Photographer: St. Gil, Marc, 1924-1992 

Subjects: Marshall, Texas

Children Play in Yard of Ruston Home, While Tacoma Smelter Stack Showers Area with Arsenic and Lead Residue

Date: 08/1972. 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-2753 

Photographer: Daniels, Gene

Clark Avenue and Clark Avenue Bridge, Looking East from West 13th Street, Are Obscured by Smoke from Heavy Industry

Date:  07/1973 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-7686

Photographer: Aleksandrowicz, Frank J., 1921- 

Location: Cleveland, Ohio

Smog Lingers Over Louisville Skyline

Date: 09/1972 

U.S. National Archives’ Local Identifier: 412-DA-1476 

Photographer: Strode, William

Coal barge on the Monongahela River moves past a United States Steel Corporation coke plant at Clairton, Pennsylvania, 20 miles south of Pittsburgh.

Date: 4/1973

Photographer: Alexandrowicz, John L.

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