The Historic American Landscapes Survey
By the end of the twentieth century, it became clear that the growing vitality of landscape history, preservation and management required appropriate documentation for historic American landscapes. In early 2001, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the National Park Service, and the Library of Congress entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that established the Historic American Landscapes Survey (HALS) to document historic landscapes in the United States and its territories, to serve as tangible evidence of our nation’s heritage and development. In 2010, the three organizations signed a new Tripartite Agreement that made HALS a permanent federal program.
The National Park Service administrates the planning and operation of HALS, standardizing formats and developing guidelines for recording landscapes, and cataloging and/or publishing the information when approrpiate.
The Library of Congress accepts and preserves HALS documents, furnishes reproductions of material, and makes records available to the National Park Service and to the general public.
The American Society of Landscape Architects works with the ASLA Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network (HP PPN) to provide advice on identifying, selecting and documenting historical landscapes.
Useful Information
Historic American Landscapes Survey
National Park Service Heritage Documentation Programs
HALS 101 Brochure (National Park Service)
HALS Toolkit (American Association of Landscape Architects)
General Resources on Historic Preservation (American Association of Landscape Architects)