Series 445: Historic Records Survey Office Files. 1936-1942.
Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).
Collection Summary: Files from the central office administering the statewide Historic Records Survey. Files include bulletins and circulars from the project’s state directors to county supervisors on assignments, style guides, citation examples, and outlines. Additionally, the collection includes general worker correspondence, a 1940 manual for conducting the newspaper survey, a manual for conducting the overall historic records survey, reports on project activities (1941), project accomplishments (1938), and the project’s contribution to creating new research tools (1938). Similar reports from the Louisiana and Oklahoma historic records surveys and daily and weekly progress report forms from field workers from the years of 1936-1939 and 1941 can also be found in the collection.
Access Restrictions: None.
Date(s): 1936-1942.
Volume: 1.50 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 Activities of the Historical Records Survey Project 10616 Assignments, 1936-1939 10616 Bulletins 10616 Circulars 10616 Correspondence 10616 Daily Progress Reports, 1939-1940 10616 Daily Progress Reports, 1940 10617 Forms and Instructions 10616 Historic Records Survey Manual 10616 Louisiana and Oklahoma Reports 10616 Miscellaneous 10617 Monthly Narratives 10616 Newspaper Survey Manual 10616 Papers and Reports 10616 Sponsor and Co-Sponsor Documentation 10616 Weekly Progress Reports, 1936-1941 10617