Surveying Southern Architecture

The culmination of Frances Benjamin Johnston's work as an architectural photographer is the Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, a systematic record of the early buildings and gardens of nine southern states that was executed between 1933 and 1940 with the financial assistance of Carnegie Corporation. Johnston (1864-1952) worked chiefly in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana and to a lesser degree in Florida. She was one of the first to document vernacular building traditions, photographing not only the great mansions of the South, but churches, graveyards, row houses, offices, kitchens, warehouses, mills, shops, farm buildings, and inns. The survey includes records of severely altered and poorly maintained structures and numerous shots of interiors, furnishings, and architectural details. In recognition of the scope and technical excellence of the Carnegie Survey, the American Institute of Architects presented an honorary membership to Johnston in 1945. In addition, her work on the Carnegie Survey led to a series of grants and photographs of eight other southern states, all of which were given to the Library of Congress for public use. Her work in preserving old and endangered buildings and her collections have been purchased by institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Baltimore Museum of Art.