Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).

Collection Summary: Inventory forms for historic records held by state agencies and surveyed by workers from the Historical Records Survey. The majority of the records surveyed were held by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and the office of the State Auditor. Records are generally described in sets or groups. For example, all the volumes of property assessments held by MDAH would be described using one reporting form. Records forms are filed alphabetically by holding agency and record type. Forms for records held by the Secretary of State are mixed together by type, but all describe records from Hinds County.

Access Restrictions: None.

Date(s): 1936-1939.

Volume: 5.50 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 ContentBox Number
Archives and History: A-F10922
Archives and History: G-P10923
Archives and History: P-S10924
Archives and History: T-V and miscellaneous10925
Secretary of State10926
State Auditor: A-M10927
State Auditor: N-R10928
State Auditor: R-W and miscellaneous10929
State Auditor: tax correspondence, Clay-Montgomery; miscellaneous10930
State Auditor: tax correspondence, Neshoba-Yazoo counties10931
State Highway Dept. and miscellaneous records10932