Series 441: Federal Writers’ Project Mississippi River Material. 1936-1941.
Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).
Collection Summary: Source material on various aspects of the Mississippi River, including people, folklore, history, river travel, fishing and hunting, navigation, levees and floods, and other similar topics, compiled by Federal Writers’ Project workers. Files comprise interviews and articles copied from newspapers, scrapbooks and books, lists of individuals workers planned to interview themselves, and two copies of the Mississippi River Commission’s 1936 report. Also included are several news articles from the Natchez Democrat on the Natchez Fire of 1940, a fire at the Rhythm Club dancehall in which 212 African-American club patrons were killed. Files are arranged alphabetically by subject.
Access Restrictions: None.
Date(s): 1936-1941.
Volume: 3.00 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 Bibliography - Jefferson Davis's plantation 10555 Discovery - general description 10556 History - newspaper clippings 10557 Natchez Fire, 1940 10560 Outlaws - steamboating 10558 Terminology - wartime events 10559