A sampling of 81,000 images — taken by more than 100 photographers and sponsored by the young EPA — to document the state of the nation’s environment in the 1970s.

The environmental movement in the United States came of age in the 1970s. The U.S. Congress had just created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and legislators had passed or were considering landmark laws concerning water quality, air pollution, and endangered species.

As a visual testimony to the state of the nation’s environment — of its waters, forests, and fields, as well as the social web in its cities and towns — the young EPA sponsored Project Documerica. More than 100 photographers contributed at least 81,000 images to the collection.

“We are working toward a new environmental ethic in this decade which will bring profound change in how we live, and in how we provide for future generations,” said William Ruckelshaus, head of the EPA in 1971 when the project began. “It is important that we document that change so future generations will understand our successes and our failures.”

Today, some 15,000 of those images are available online from the National Archives. The gallery below is a window to a time when water pollution was pervasive and many rivers were lifeless. Click the images to enlarge in a slideshow.