Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).

Collection Summary: Typed and handwritten source material for the Mississippi Factbook, a Federal Writers’ Project publication. Some of the source material is in the form of original narrative essays by project workers, while some is in the form of newspaper articles and direct transcriptions of original records. Files are arranged alphabetically by subject.

Access Restrictions: None.

Date(s): 1936-1941.

Volume: 4.00 Cubic Feet.

Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in September 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

Artists - Census

10516

Charters - Education

10517

Forest - Government

10518

Health - Industry

10519

Information - Mississippi Insane Hospital

10520

Musicians - Social Service Commission 

10521

Soils - State Penitentiary

10522

State Penitentiary - Women 

10523