Use Restrictions

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Dorn McGrath Fairfax County and Loudoun County slide collection, C0210, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Dorn McGrath from 2012-2017.

Processing Information

Processed by Jordan Patty in July 2012. Additional processing completed by Stephanie Washburn in January 2013. EAD markup completed by Jordan Patty in July 2012. Additional cataloging completed by Stephanie Washburn in January 2013. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in October 2023.

This collection has additional unprocessed accessions 2015.018 and 2017.040, and therefore this finding aid may not be fully up to date.

Biographical Information

Dorn McGrath was Professor Emeritus of Urban and Regional Planning and Geography at George Washington University. In 2003 he retired from the George Washington University where he was founder of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Director of the Institute for Urban Development Research, Chairman of the Department of Geography and Regional Science, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning, and was one of the founders of the University's Graduate Program in Historic Preservation. McGrath also served as a member of the adjunct faculty at the Johns Hopkins University, School for Advanced International Studies. From 1987-1996 he served as Chairman of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City. McGrath passed away in 2021.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of 525 color slides that contain mostly aerial views of Fairfax County and Loudoun County, Virginia. The aerial views feature housing developments, automobile transportation corridors, Dulles International Airport, and the surrounding countryside. Many of the photographs at ground level feature the contested area at the intersection of Old Dominion Drive (Route 738) and Spring Hill Road (Route 684) that was the subject of a lawsuit between Mobil Oil and the Fairfax County government. In 1986 Mobil requested that the area be rezoned, and eventually succeeded after multiple appeals. There are also slides with charts and graphs, perhaps used for presentations. Some of the slides are individually identified with handwritten titles, and the titles follow the naming conventions used on the original slide boxes with some editing for clarification. The photographs of Loudoun County are mostly aerial photographs of Leesburg, Middleburg, and various interchanges in the county. There are several images of farms and the surrounding countryside.

Arrangement

Arranged by subject.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center also holds a number of collections on Fairfax County, including the Harold T. Rib aerial photograph collection and the Charles Baptie photograph collection.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Aerial photographs
• Dulles International Airport
• Fairfax County (Va.)
• Housing
• Loudoun County (Va.)
• Regional planning -- Virginia
• Slides (Photography)