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Kemp wrote the book American Bridge Patents: The First Century (1790-1890) with the assistance of Eric DeLong, Shelley Maddex and Larry Sypolt. The box includes book section drafts, especially of the first essay in the book, "Patents Punctuate the History of 19th Century Bridges." The box also includes handwritten notes, correspondence and photographic prints, along with facsimiles of the following: patent applications, engineering drawings, and book excerpts. Subjects include the patent process for bridge technology, West Virginia bridges, and truss bridges.

Kemp collected drawings and card-mounted photographs as pictorial reference for research. Subjects include structures from Europe and the United States, including bridges, railroad bridges, canals, cathedrals, lighthouses, mills, rivers, and turpentine distillery. The Antietam mills, B&O Railroad, Erie Canal, Menai Strait, Schuylkill River, Susquehanna River, the city of Conway, Wales and the city of Wheeling, West Virginia each appear in multiple drawings.

This box contains the following books:

Kemp researched bridge patents and compiled the reports of others in preparation for his book American Bridge Patents: The First Century (1790-1890) and other publications. The box includes correspondence, book excerpts, drafts of publications, reports, lists of patents, and clippings. Correspondents include David Simmons and Joy Chau. Highlights include many HAER reports on bridges in Ohio.

Kemp maintained research materials on historic building materials and engineering. The box includes facsimile book excerpts and reports. Highlights include an NRHP nomination form for the McFarland House in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Kemp conducted research on land and water transportation systems and published on the subject, including the book Transportation and Technology, which included essays on the history of technology and transportation. The box includes a dissertation, reports, photographic prints, research notes, a calendar, correspondence, handwritten notes, clippings, and resumes. The box also includes facsimiles of the following: maps, advertisements, charts, reports, photographic prints, book excerpts, correspondence, clippings, maps and engineering drawings. Subjects include turnpikes, structures of West Virginia, waterways, Kemp's book Taming the Muskingum, the Little Kanawha River, and bridges. Highlights include a HAER nomination form for the West Oil Company Endless-Wire Oil Pumping Rig and correspondence about Kemp's work with Fairbanks Oil Company. The following oversize items were moved to Map Cabinet 12, Drawer 14, Folder 3: one clipping (2013), two brochures (1976), one map (1883).

Kemp researched the bridges of Richard B. Osborne, a bridge engineer in Pennsylvania, as part of a paper he gave for the Society for Industrial Archaeology Meeting in 1986 and an article in the journal Industrial Archaeology. Kemp also helped design a bridge replica for the National Museum of American History. The box includes drafts of the essay, clippings, facsimile book excerpts, facsimile and original engineering drawings, student papers, calculations, data lists, facsimile and original photographs, and research notes. Subjects include the Reading-Halls Station Bridge near Muncy, Pennsylvania; the Sunderland Bridge near Deerfield, Massachusetts; the West Manayuk Bridge near Manayuk, Pennsylvania; the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company (later called the Reading Railway); Pottsville, Pennsylvania; the iron truss bridges; other truss bridges; and the process of conducting research on Richard B. Osborne. Highlights include a HAER report on the Reading-Halls Station Bridge near Muncy, Pennsylvania. The following oversize items were moved to Map Cabinet 12, Drawer 7, Folder 1: 2,013 facsimile pages of diary (1851-1881), 8 engineering drawings (1981-1985 and undated).

Kemp collected the records of the United States Senate and House of Representatives as they worked on the Rivers and Harbors Acts. This box contains bound copies of the United States Congressional Series Set from the 20th-56th Congressional sessions. Subjects include canals (especially the C&O Canal), rivers (especially the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers), and improvements to harbors and roads in Alabama, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, New York, Texas, and Washington.

The IHTIA and Vandalia Heritage Foundation created a report on revitalizing the B&O Railroad Main Stem in 2004. The box contains their preparation, including facsimile book excerpts, studies, reports, facsimile photos, articles, facsimile diagrams and maps, and facsimile ephemera. Subjects include the B&O railroad, its surrounding industrial archaeology, and archival management best practices. Highlights include a Historic Landmark nomination forms for the B&O Railroad Martinsburg Shops and facsimile train orders. This document case was originally formatted as two binders.