Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).

Collection Summary: Two copies of the inventory of the archives of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) in Mississippi, published in February 1940. The inventory itself was compiled by Public Records Project workers in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The aim of FERA was to move unemployed individuals off the relief rolls by giving them paying work. FERA in MississippiMississippi was administered by George B. Power, who had also served in that capacity for the Civil Works Administration. FERA ceased operations on January 1, 1936, at which point its employment functions were assumed by the newly created Works Progress Administration.

Access Restrictions: None.

Date(s): 1940.

Volume: 0.50 Cubic Feet.

Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in August 2024.

Related Materials: TBD.

Record Group History: The Works Projects Administration (WPA) was a federal program established on May 6th, 1935, in order to increase employment during the Great Depression. While the WPA was a federal program, it was implemented and managed on the state level with each state having their own director and office to guide the operation of the WPA for each state. The WPA was primarily focused on employing individuals for the purpose of creating public works and infrastructure, but a small portion of its funding was devoted to cultural and artistic endeavors which the files in this collection are primarily concerned with. Two of the major cultural projects the WPA undertook were the Federal Writers’ Project and the Historical Records Survey. The Federal Writers Project employed writers to create guides, histories, and chronicles for each state and the Historical Records Survey sought to catalogue the historical records of each state.

Collection Inventory:
Box Content 

Box Number

Federal Emergency Relief Administration Inventory

29314