Series 1526: Mississippi Industrial and Training School Records. 1918-1951.
Department of Youth Services (RG 84).

Series 1526: Mississippi Industrial and Training School Records. 1918-1951.
Department of Youth Services (RG 84).

      A collection of records pertaining to the Mississippi Industrial and Training School, a state institution that served to house, educate and vocationally train children who were delinquent, destitute or abandoned. Children judged by the state to be in such immoral home environments that they were likely to develop into criminals could also be removed from their homes and placed in the Industrial and Training School. The series contains the following items:

Register of Children, 1918-1938. Originally kept in a ring-bound notebook, this item lists names of children admitted to the institution from August 21, 1818 (the first child admitted) to February 28, 1938. Ages of children are not given. Boys and girls are listed separately.

Register of Children, 1938-1951. Also originally kept in a ring-bound notebook, this item lists names of children admitted to the institution from May 25, 1938 to July 25, 1951. As with the earlier register, this book does not record ages of children and boys and girls are listed separately.

Report drafts, 1918-1927. Originally kept together in a thick post binder, these typescripts have now been foldered separately. They contain some reports and financial statements that were published verbatim biennially, but also many items that seemingly were not published. These unpublished items include Superintendent’s annual reports to the Board, Superintendent’s budget submissions to the Governor, property inventories, certain financial statements, and information provided to the Legislature and State Bond Improvement Commission when requested.

Commissary Record, 1921-1927. Large post-bound volume recording quantities and values of various commodities issued to the cottages and other buildings of the institution on a weekly basis.

Report of Salaries & Expense Account, 1922-1925. A ledger recording the various accounts of the institution – recreational, agricultural, subsistence, etc. – from 1922 to 1925. The ledger also contains a small number of typed monthly reports of salaries and expense accounts paid out of the support fund from May, 1924 to November, 1925.

Untitled account ledger, 1921-1927. A small ledger with a buckram and corduroy cover, arranged by account – “buildings”, “cash”, “sales”, “subsistence”, "nursing and attendance”, "postage”, "laundry supplies", etc.

Untitled account book, 1927-1928. A small blue post binder predominantly consisting of accounts of clothing issued to the children housed at the training school. Each child has a separate account. A small portion of the book is devoted to the accounts of the various cottages and other buildings of the institution, such as the Engineer’s House and the Hospital.