Michael T. Southern is a native of Raleigh with family roots in the Winston-Salem area. He is a 1973 art history graduate of UNC Chapel Hill, where he was a student of John V. Allcott, author of The Campus at Chapel Hill and mentor to a generation of students in American art and architecture.
Southern is currently supervisor of the Survey and Planning Branch of the State Historic Preservation Office, which coordinates the statewide survey and National Register programs for historic architecture. He has served the HPO in several capacities since 1974, including preservation specialist for the Western Office of Archives and History in Asheville, restoration specialist, and research historian. Over the years he has participated in field studies in all 100 of North Carolina's counties.
Southern has had a lifelong interest in graphic art, cartography, and photography. In addition to his research and writing for the guides, he created the county, municipal, and regional maps and contributed almost one-fourth of the photographs.
