This YouTube video, , is a glimpse into a Chicago of the 1940s. This piece is done by famous director and travel documentary maker James Fitzpatrick.

Recently, on a trip out west, I visited The Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) at one of their locations in Wendover, Utah.  CLUI is a research/educational organization that investigates how humans interact with terrestrial space and attempt to understand the broader consequences of these interactions.  As they state on their website, “We believe that the manmade landscape is a cultural inscription, that can be read to better understand who we are, and what we are doing.”

CLUI maintains a Land Use Database, which is ” . . . a free public resource, designed to educate and inform the public about the function and form of the national landscape, a terrestrial system that has been altered to accommodate the complex demands of our society.”  The database focuses on the United States and several categories of land use including transportation, water, cultural, industrial, mining, waste, military, nuclear/radioactive, and research & development.  You can browse by state or category or submit a keyword query.