Many of the photographs and documents found on this page are featured in “Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project,” on exhibit at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, through September 8, 2013.

In November 1971, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a large-scale photodocumentary project to record changes in the American environment. The DOCUMERICA Project, as it would be known, lasted from 1971 until 1977. The EPA hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s. The project resulted in more than 20,000 photographs.

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