Industrial Archaeology (IA)

Industrial archaeology has been defined as the "field of study that is concerned with the investigation, surveying, recording, and
in some cases the preservation of industrial monuments...and assessing the significance of industrial monuments in context of
social and technological history." It is within this broad framework of surveys, contextual history, documentation, and
preservation that IHTIA has undertaken projects in the past ten years. 

The simplest IA technique is the resource survey. This offers a preliminary review of a site that provides information for
determining a resource's significance and could further be used in developing a preservation plan for a neighborhood or
community. The contextual report draws upon not only the survey and archival research, but the written and graphic record as
well. The final product can take one of two forms, a "process-specific" report that looks at the subject broadly, or a
"site-specific" report that examines a particular place. Combining the survey with a site-specific contextual history constitutes a
site recording. 

At the other end of the scale, a Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) level site recording project entails three separate, but interrelated, products: measured drawings, large-format photography, and narrative history. While the narrative examines the corporate and technological history of the site, measured drawings document processes and technologies employed there, and the large-format photos record the condition of the extant remains. A site record is the minimal level of preservation and is often used for mitigation purposes when a historic site or structure is to be adversely impacted or destroyed.