Jack E. Boucher
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
photographer. He began working for the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...
in 1958 and continued working there until at least 2006, 48 years later, serving as the Chief Photographer for the Historic American Buildings Survey
Historic American Buildings Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
(HABS). Starting in 1966 he left the Park Service for two years to supervise New Jersey's State Historic Preservation program which included the State's roadside marker program, 18 historic museum houses, several lighthouses, and two historic villages.
Offered his old job back by the Park Service/HABS in 1970, he left New Jersey to return to NPS/HABS and the highly specialized job of large format photographic architectural documentation. His work has taken him to 49 States, the Virgin Islands
Virgin Islands
The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...
and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. April 2008 was the fiftieth anniversary of his employment with the National Park Service's "HABS" program. He travels with 900 pounds of photographic equipment.
Career
Boucher's first job was photo lab and engraving chief for the Atlantic City Tribune (1949–1951), then at Fred Hess & Son Photographers, Atlantic City, New JerseyAtlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...
(from February 1951 to September 1952), afterwards at NJ Garden State Parkway
Garden State Parkway
The Garden State Parkway is a 172.4-mile limited-access toll parkway that stretches the length of New Jersey from the New York line at Montvale, New Jersey, to Cape May at New Jersey's southernmost tip. Its name refers to New Jersey's nickname, the "Garden State." Most New Jersey residents refer...
Chief of Photography (September 1952 to April 1958). Also wrote a weekly column on conservation and preservation for the Tribune and then the Atlantic City Press for two years. He produced and presented a one hour radio program dealing with conservation and preservation from 1952 to 1953 on WFPG
WFPG
This article is about the FM radio station. For the former WFPG AM 1450 and TV 46, see WENJ and WFPG-TV.WFPG is an adult contemporary music radio station based in Atlantic City, New Jersey....
, Atlantic City, New Jersey. He then left the Parkway to work for the National Park Service.
He was first assigned to work jointly with the Washington Branch of Still and Motion Pictures under Ralph Anderson, chief of the branch, and with HABS, Historic Structures at the NPS Eastern Office of Design and Construction in Philadelphia. From 1958 to 1962, Boucher documented one of the most significant periods in National Park Service history: Mission 66
Mission 66
Mission 66 was a US National Park Service ten-year program that was intended to dramatically expand Park Service visitor services by 1966, in time for the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Park Service....
, a design and construction program intended to revitalize the national park
National park
A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...
s through a massive, 10-year program of capital investment. In 1963, He became Chief Photographer of the Historic American Building Survey. From 1971 to 1978, Boucher also performed all photography work for the Historic American Engineering Record.
Career highlights
Large format
Large format refers to any imaging format of 4×5 inches or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the 6×6 cm or 6×9 cm size of Hasselblad, Rollei, Kowa, Pentax etc cameras , and much larger than the 24×36 mm frame of 35 mm format.The main advantage...
speed graphic
Speed Graphic
Produced by Graflex in Rochester, New York, the Speed Graphic is commonly called the most famous press camera. Although the first Speed Graphic cameras were produced in 1912, production of later versions continued until 1973; with the most significant improvements occurring in 1947 with the...
and camera bag over his head in water up to his armpits. While reconnoitering camera vantage points to document Fortress El Morro in Old San Juan in 1967, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. Boucher and his wife Peggy were passengers aboard a sailing catamaran that was struck and cut in two by a submarine entering the San Juan harbor. During the 1990s he produced over 500 large format images of the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
for the Historic American Buildings Survey, some days he was only able to produce a single image. A proud possession is a book published by the White House centering on the family living quarters illustrated by his work. His copy was personally autographed to him by the President and the First Lady.
The assignment of which he is most proud is a three week stint photographically documenting the leprosy settlement "Kalaupapa," on the Hawaiian Island of Molokai
Molokai
Molokai or Molokai is an island in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is 38 by 10 miles in size with a land area of , making it the fifth largest of the main Hawaiian Islands and the 27th largest island in the United States. It lies east of Oahu across the 25-mile wide Kaiwi Channel and north of...
, living among the 85 victims still in residence there at the time. "I vividly remember studying the story of the Belgian Priest Fr. Damien and his labors for 16 years among the lepers while in grade school. I never dreamed I would be able to go there."
Boucher completed the National Trust of England's "Attingham School" in 1969, an intensive summer study program dealing with the historic country houses of England, and architecture from Roman times to the Regency Period. About 1973 he was one of 36 selected to participate in the European Traveling Summer School for Historic Architecture and Preservation. It was a seven week study tour through England, France, Holland and Belgium.
American Preservation Magazine published a series of his articles writing and photography of historic cities in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
Iron Curtain era
Iron Curtain
The concept of the Iron Curtain symbolized the ideological fighting and physical boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1989...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
He conceived and oversaw the preservation of Atlantic City's 1857 Absecon Light
Absecon Light
The Absecon Light is a coastal lighthouse located in the north end of Atlantic City, New Jersey overlooking Absecon Inlet. It is the tallest lighthouse in the state of New Jersey and is the third tallest masonry lighthouse in the United States. Construction began in 1854, with the light first lit...
house in 1964; the ca 1820's Weymouth Furnace. Earlier, and at age 21 in 1952, Boucher was the instigator and one of two key people from the preservation/conservation field responsible for the preservation of New Jersey 98000 acres (396.6 km²) Wharton Forest home to three major historic iron furnace villages that served the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
, twenty four species of wild orchids, the habitat of the rare "Pine Barrens Tree Frog," and a canoeing and hunting retreat.
In 1952 he personally guided Mike Hudoba, noted outdoors writer on a several day canoe trip through the Warton Forest rivers. He talks about a three week canoe trip to fish for trout in Canadian wilderness a few hundred miles from the Arctic Circle
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....
. Navigating the Bersimus River, they were attempting to reach Lake Boucher but were unable to portage around rapids.
Legacy
After more than five decades of public service, he is the creator of tens of thousands of public domainPublic domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
photographs. In 1986 he received the Department of the Interior
United States Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native...
's Meritorious Service Award in 1986. Other awards include The Medal for Architectural Photography by the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
, Awards of Merit and also Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History and a Resolution of Commendation from New Jersey State Senate, as well as others.
He has lectured extensively at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, The College of William & Mary, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, Ball State University
Ball State University
Ball State University is a state-run research university located in Muncie, Indiana. It is also known as Ball State or simply BSU.Located on the northwest side of the city, Ball State's campus spans and includes 106 buildings...
, University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
, University of Texas at Austin
University of Texas at Austin
The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...
, Franklin Pierce University, history and preservation organizations and other schools across the nation. For some 15 years he has annually produced and teaches architectural documentation photography of historic structures to the Preservation Institute of Nantucket
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...
, the nine week summer preservation program of the University of Florida's School of Architecture.
Major exhibits include two at the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, one at the American Institute of Architects, the Atheneum of Philadelphia, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society
Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society Building
The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society is located on Nottingham Court in the city of Buffalo, just east of Elmwood Avenue, north of the Scajaquada Expressway, in the northwest corner of Delaware Park. It occupies the building constructed in 1901 as the New York State pavilion for that...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, as well as in Puerto Rico, Columbia and SC.
Well over an estimated 50,000 of his HABS/HAER photographs are in the collections of the Library of Congress and available to the public. Most are already online. He neither accepts private commissions or sells copies of his work. His work is available free (except for actual costs of reproduction) as a Government service on line or from the Library of Congress.
Publications
- A Record in Detail: The Architectural Photographs of Jack E. Boucher (1988) (ISBN 0-8262-0640-9)
- A Quest for Grandeur: Charles Moore and the Federal Triangle, text by Sally Kress Tompkins (ISBN 1-56098-161-X)
- Landmarks of Prince George's County/Architectural Photographs (ISBN 0-8018-4628-5)
- Absegami Yesteryear (1964), Laureate Press: history of Atlantic County, NJ
- Of Batsto & Bog Iron (1964), Batsto Citizens Advisory Committee
- Atlantic City's historic Absecon lighthouse (1964), Atlantic County Historical Society (he chaired a committee that saved the tower from destruction and oversaw its restoration in 1963)
- Lucy, The Margate Elephant (1970), Save Lucy Committee, a National Historic Landmark
- A Record In Detail, University of Missouri Press
- Quest for Grandeur,1 Smithsonian Press
- Landmarks of Prince George's County (1993),1 Johns Hopkins PressJohns Hopkins University PressThe Johns Hopkins University Press is the publishing division of the Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and holds the distinction of being the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The Press publishes books, journals, and electronic databases...
(ISBN 978-0801846281) - Under Four Flags,1 (California)
- Architecture of Middle Tennessee (1974),1 Vanderbilt University Press (ISBN 978-0826511843)
- Industrial Archeology,1 Stephen Greene Press. Etc.
- 1 Photos only.