Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).

Collection Summary: Reports and training material from the Adult Education Program, administered by the Professional and Service Division’s Community Service section. The purpose of the program was to provide literacy training to illiterate Mississippi adults, using out of work teachers recruited and trained by the WPA. Annual summary reports contain statistics on the numbers of students in various education programs run by the program, student enrollments by county and subject, and the level of education achieved by WPA teachers, by race. The Directory of Social Agencies in Mississippi contains contact information for agriculture, business and commerce, education, government, public health, religious, clubs and organizations, public welfare, and public transportation organizations across the state; there is one draft version and one final version. Also included are readers, teaching materials and teacher handbooks on a variety of topics, such as commercial education for adults, wildlife conservation, forest conservation, home economics, parent education, English for adults, and historical Mississippi. Personnel lists are lists of teachers working for the Adult Education program organized by district and divided by race, containing addresses, salaries and travel allowances.

Access Restrictions: None.

Date(s): 1936-1942.

Volume: 3.50 Cubic Feet.

Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in September 2024.

Related Materials: Series 2774: Mississippi Emergency Education Program Report. 1935.

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

Annual summary reports: 1936-1941.

10501

Directory of Social Agencies in Mississippi.

10454

Handbooks for teachers: 1939-1941.

10502

Newsletters, courses, and miscellaneous material.

10503

Personnel reports: 1936-1941.

10504

Publications for study: 1937-1939.

10505

Publications for study: 1937-1939.

10506