2 collections related to Engineering -- Specifications -- North Carolina

The Robert C. Browning Papers contains material from the professional engineering work of Robert C. Browning, and his father, R. Getty Browning. Robert C. Browning's materials contain project files, drawings, project photographs, engineering instruments related to his work as a consulting engineer. The project files are a sampling of Browning's engineering projects from the 1950s until the mid-1990s. His projects are mainly located at hospitals, colleges, and warehouse facilities. The types of documents found most often in Browning's project files are notes, sketches, working drawings, specifications, correspondence, budgeting and costs, engineering standards, and equipment catalogs. The equipment catalogs were put out by the manufacturers of machines and industrial equipment that Browning either installed or considered installing in project locations. Browning's collection also contains a box of personal information. This box includes diplomas, conferences attended, papers given, and Browning's resume at various points in his career. Also included is a profile of the Robert C. Browning Consulting Firm and a projects list. Engineering drawings in the Robert Browning Collection are shop drawings or blue prints. Some are drawn in the original pencil, others are copies. Copies of drawings often contain new revisions and added notes. The drawings illustrate plans for plumbing, electrical, lighting, structural, floor plans, exhaust, air conditioning, and heating. The Robert C. Browning Papers also include are materials from R. Getty Browning's work as Chief Locating Engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (previously named Highway Commission). Included in the collection are project files, biographical papers, and artifacts. In the project files are materials relating to Getty Browning's work in the planning and construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway. These files contain correspondence, notes, maps, sketches, photographs and publicity materials. Biographical papers include newspaper clippings, photographs and publicity created by or about Getty Browning before and after his death. Also included are papers related to his work in the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The artifacts in the collection are engineering and surveying equipment used by Getty Browning. Robert C. Browning (1919-2007) and his father, R. Getty Browning (1884-1966), worked as engineers in North Carolina. Robert C. Browning earned a degree in consulting engineering from North Carolina State University in 1941. After serving in the Army as an engineer during World War II, Browning came back to the United States and started his own consulting engineering firm. As a consulting engineer, Robert C. Browning worked on the construction and renovations of schools, hospitals, industrial plants, and commercial buildings from 1953 until the mid-1990s. Projects at these locations included air conditioning, plumbing, heating, electrical, communications, storm drainage, water and sewer, grading, site planning, structural, central heating plants, steam distribution systems, highway right-of way acquisition, claims investigations, and highway location. R. Getty Browning worked as the Chief Locating Engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation from 1925 to 1958. He is best known for planning the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina starting in 1934. Less