/tech_drawings

Engineering and Technical Drawings Resources

Technical Drawings

Historical Engineering and Technical Drawings Resources

What is included:

  • Historical documents with measured drawings

What is not included:

  • Drawings made by/for hobby recreations and art
  • Collections without scale/measurements
  • Paywalled/non-digitized collections

U.S. Library of Congress

Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh/

  • Search for collections with "Measured Drawing(s)"
  • Download TIFF for high resolution version

Example: Texas State Capitol (79 Drawings)

U.S. National Archives

Series of Ship Engineering Drawings: https://catalog.archives.gov/search-within/559623?availableOnline=true&typeOfMaterials=Architectural%20and%20Engineering%20Drawings

Example: Plans for the Armored Cruiser USS Maine (571 Drawings)

Deutsche Fotothek (German Photo Library)

Construction Drawings: https://www.deutschefotothek.de/gallery/freitext/Konstruktionszeichnungen

New York City Department of Records

Interesting collections:

  • Department of Buildings Architectural Plans and Drawings
  • Parks and Parkways Drawings and Plans

https://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/view/all

Denver Public Library Digital Collections

https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/search/order/datea/ad/asc/page/1

Example: Denver & Rio Grande Railway Drawings (35 Drawings)

Henry Ford Digital Collections

https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/search-results#advancedSearch=1&s.0.in=collectionTitle&s.0.for=Ford%20Motor%20Company%20Part%20Drawing%20Collection

Note: can use something like dezoomify to download the full res image after inspecting the page source

Example: Ford Model A Drawings (890 Drawings)

San Francisco Maritime National Park Association

Booklet of General Plans Online: https://maritime.org/doc/plans/index.php

Example: USS Growler Submarine SSG577 Booklet of General Plans (6 Drawings)

Canada National Archives

Architectural and Technical Drawings: https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Home/Search?DataSource=Archives&num=25&start=0&enviro=prod&TypeOfMaterialCode=700&OnlineCode=1

Example: Canada Parliament Buildings (83 Drawings)

Southern Methodist University Digital Collections

Railroad Engineering Drawings: https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digital/collection/rwy/search/searchterm/Series%201:%20Engineering%20Drawings/field/series/mode/exact/conn/and

New York Bridge Drawings: https://digitalcollections.smu.edu/digital/collection/nam/search/searchterm/New%20York%20Bridge%20Drawings/field/part/mode/exact/conn/and

Example: Queensboro Bridge (200+ Drawings)

Digital Public Library of America

Technical Drawings: https://dp.la/search?q=technical+drawings

Science Museum Group UK

Hosts an online collection of select drawings from Railway Museum UK

Note: The website doesnt seem to be working for downloading the full res version of scans but there is a workaround. The collection utilizes the IIIF Image API 2.0 for access of large images, the URLs of which can be found using the museum's Collections Online API

  • Use the Collections Online API to find the "zoom" URL of the drawing within the document you are viewing
  • Replace the last part of the URL that says .ptif with /full/full/0/default.tif
    • This is essentially saying "give me the full image with no rotation and default colors in TIFF format"

Example: North Eastern Railway and London & North Eastern Railway Carriage & Wagon Drawings (~100 Drawings)