Dodge/Scan Microfilms (1987-1993)

Index to Dodge/Scan Microfilms (1987 - 1993)

The following inventory is of 134 rolls of 35mm microfilm depicting architectural plans for approximately 550 New Hampshire projects between 1987 and 1994. Because the microfilm was created to assist in the solicitation of bids, the drawings are design renderings only and thus the completed buildings may differ significantly from these drawings. These drawings, however, can provide significant insight to architectural design of this time period as well as into the basic concepts held by building owners guiding the hands of the architects.

The film is popularly referred to as Dodge/SCAN film as it is created by the F.W. Dodge Division of the McGraw Hill Publishing Co. which provides this film as a service to the construction industry throughout the United States. The film is used to solicit bids from construction firms. Apparently, Dodge has been discarding this film regularly six months after creation. Sometime in 1993 the Company approached the Archives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in regard to preserving the film of New England projects. This followed the apparent success of such a preservation program on the Pacific coast in coordination with the Oregon State Archives. Massachusetts Commonwealth Archivist Dr. Albert Whitaker and Curator Nancy Richard met with state archivists of New England to discuss the Dodge proposal. In New Hampshire, I contacted State Architectural Historian James L. Garvin of the Division of Historical Resources to determine his evaluation of the Dodge/SCAN microfilm based on documentation received through the Massachusetts Archives. Dr. Garvin, in a letter of April 1994, acknowledged that the film should be extremely valuable to his research and to future researchers of architectural history and of building preservation. Thus, I agreed that New Hampshire would take its own film if the Massachusetts Archives would accept it from Dodge and sort it by state.

In September of 1995, on a trip to Boston on several matters, I picked up the New Hampshire film from Columbia Point. During the fall of 1995 the Archives staff spliced the pieces of microfilm into 100-foot rolls and duplicated the rolls. Thus, the 134 full rolls were created. Beginning in January 1996, I created this inventory/index a bit each day using WordPerfect 5.1 software.

The 134 master rolls are maintained in the micrographics vault at the Archives. Duplicate rolls are available for use in the research area. This has all been done here in the hope that this information will, indeed, be valuable to researchers now and in the future.

Frank C. Mevers, Director and State Archivist (1979-2010)
New Hampshire Division of Records Management and Archives