Series 428: WPA Professional and Service Projects Division Office Files. 1937-1943.
Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).
Collection Summary: Office files from the Professional and Service Projects division of the WPA. Files contain a mix of materials, including a list of personnel assignments and wage rates for the Historical Records Survey and Naturalization Index project (1941); progress reports from various projects at various times, such as the Church Records Inventory (1939-1940, fragmentary), the Historical Records Survey (1941), the Vital Statistics Indexing project (1941); an organization chart for the Professional and Service Projects division; limited correspondence with the Writers’ Project; property inventory forms, mostly from the Writer’s Project; manuals for different projects, including the Public Records Survey and many of the works published by the Writer’s Project; individuals’ WPA work cards and WPA wage rates (1938); workers’ time sheets, mostly for those working to catalogue the library of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History; and a list of workers by district, possibly for the County Records Inventory. Individuals’ files generally contain correspondence, although the file on Gertie Frank contains her research notes from her work on the Writer’s Project and the file on Willie C. Scallorn contains both correspondence and 1940 time sheets. Also included is a copy of federal WPA appropriations act for FY 1943. Researchers should note that series 467, Scrapbooks, contains a scrapbook documenting “This Work Pays Your Community Week.”
Access Restrictions: None.
Date(s): 1937-1943.
Volume: 2.50 Cubic Feet.
Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in August 2024.
Related Materials: Series 467: WPA Scrapbooks. 1934-1941.
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
"This Work Pays Your Community Week" 32048
Act of 1943 (concerning the funding of the WPA) 10475
Bulletins and instructions 32048
Check-file on biographies 10475
Church inventory work 10475
Correspondence (Writers' Project) 32048
County records project progress reports, 1941 10475
Daily production records and time reports, 1939-1940 10462
Daily statistical reports 10475
Documentation manual 10475 Dumas, J.D., NYA Director 10475 Fite, Bethel 10475 Frank, Gertie, research file 10475 General information 10475 Inventory of property 10476 Mississippi Guide 10476 Organization chart, Professional and Service Projects Division 32048 Payne, Ethel 10476 Personnel assignments 10475 Preparation of inventory 10476 Production reports 10476 Progress tabulation forms, 1941. 10475 Project files, 1940 32048 Project status reports, 1940 32048 Project visit report 10476 Public records project manual 10477 Sage, Jerome 10477 Scallorn, Miss Willie C. 10477 Wage rates and work cards, 1938 10477 Weekly staff meetings, 1937 10477 Worker list by district 10477 Workmen's compensation insurance 10477