1970s America

Explore the topics of 70s, including the environment, foreign policy, the energy crisis, and more.

The Seventies

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.

Many of the photographs and documents found on this page are featured in Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project exhibit from the National Archives.

COVER IMAGES

Left Column (Top to Bottom) Gas Rationing System (Odd-Even Plan) is Announced, Joint Resolution Proposing the Equal Rights Amendment, Children Play in Yard of Ruston Home, while Tacoma Smelter Stack Showers Area with Arsenic and Lead Residue.

Right Column (Top to Bottom) 336th Aviation Company Sprays a Defoliation Agent on a Jungle in the Mekong Delta, Presidential Proclamation by President Ford granting a pardon to Richard Nixon, President and Mrs. Nixon visit the Great Wall of China, Evacuees from the US Embassy in Tehran, Iran, are briefed.