Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).

Collection Summary: Reporting forms for the Historical Records Survey’s inventory of county records. Forms record data on buildings, volumes and unbound records, and maps and photographs. Building forms record data on the building where the surveyed records were stored, usually the county courthouse, and often include a hand drawn floor plan. Bound and unbound volume forms record the date range and types of records surveyed, the creating office and quantity. Maps and photographs forms record the creating office, type and number of items, dates, and the name of the artist, publisher, author or engraver. Records for Adams County also include handwritten and typed transcripts of county court minutes from the early 1800s, and a name and subject index to the county court records with corrections. Also present are completed, formal inventories for Amite, Attala, Issaquena, Lamar, Lauderdale, Pearl River, Pike, Quitman, Stone, Tippah, Tunica, Walthall, and Washington counties. Incomplete and draft inventories are present for Jefferson, Lowndes, Yalobusha and Yazoo counties. Formal inventories comprise a historical sketch of the county, a small state and county map, a description of the county’s record system, a county government organization chart, and a description of the responsibilities of and records generated by each county office. Files are arranged alphabetically by county.

Access Restrictions: None.

Date(s): 1936-1942.

Volume: 19.25 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 ContentBox Number
Adams County 10880
Adams County 10881
Adams County 10882
Adams County 10883
Adams and Amite counties10884
Attala and Clarke counties10885
Copiah and Covington counties10886
George County10887
Greene, Harrison, Issaquena, and Jefferson counties10888
Lafayette, Lamar, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Leake, and Lee counties10889
Leflore County10890
Leflore County10891
Lowndes County10892
Lowndes County10893
Marshall County10894
Monroe County10895
Noxubee and Oktibbeha counties10897
Panola, Pearl River, Perry, and Pike counties10898
Pontotoc County10899
Pontotoc County10900
Prentiss County10901
Quitman County10902
Quitman County10903
Quitman County10904
Sharkey, Stone, and Sunflower counties10905
Tallahatchie County10906
Tate County10907
Tippah, Tishomingo, and Tunica counties10908
Union County10909
Union and Walthall counties10910
Warren County10912
Warren County10913
Warren County10914
Washington County10915
Washington County10916
Webster County10917
Winston County10918
Yalobusha County10919
Yalobusha County10920
Yazoo County10921