Series 440: Impact of World War II. 1941-1943.
Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).
Collection Summary: Anecdotes, largely copied by hand from various local newspapers, concerning the effects of the Second World War on Mississippi and Mississippians. Examples of anecdotes include the story of a baby boy born in McComb in January 1942 whose parents named him Victory Pearl Harbor Moore, accounts of the first war casualty from various counties around the state, and printed copies of soldiers’ letters home published in their hometown newspapers. There are also news stories on the effect of the war on the state’s industry and economy, in addition to its impact on the different social and ethnic groups in the state, especially with regard to efforts to support the troops and the war. Material from black newspapers is included under the heading “Negroes.” A small amount of material was also gathered through interviews and original research. Of particular interest, are two boxes of note cards in box 10551. The first box contains index cards detailing the impact of the war on Mississippi soldiers. Each index card covers one day of action from January 1941 to February 1943, and contains the names, hometowns and occasionally age and rank of soldiers promoted, killed or missing, and the names of those enlisted on a particular day, as reported in a particular newspaper, which is cited. Researchers should note that the dates on the cards refer to the dates that soldiers were reported on, and not necessarily the date of the action in which they were killed or the actual date they enlisted. Also in the first box is a set of cards detailing the impact of the war on state and local events, essentially a day-by-day bibliography of relevant newspaper articles cited by date, headline, newspaper and page on which the article appeared. The second box of index cards is a day-by-day bibliography of important economic and military events in the war as reported on by Mississippi newspapers (as well as the Memphis Commercial Appeal), dating from December 1941 to February 1943.
Access Restrictions: None.
Date(s): 1941-1943.
Volume: 4.50 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 Attitudes and customs of Mississippians 10547 Business Status Endangered and Economic Changes 10548 Economic Changes 10549 Ethnic Changes 10549 Farmers 10549 Home Life 10549 Indians 10554 Industries 10549 Legislative Bodies 10550 Miscellaneous 10550 Negroes 10550 Newspaper Clippings 10550 Note Cards 10551 Organization of Defense Groups 10552 Personal History 10553 Political and Social Attitudes 10553