United States Work Projects Administration records
Contributors: United States. Works Progress Administration; Federal Writers' Project; Writers' Program (U.S.)
Series: American guide-books
Language: eng
Number of pages: 1634
Subjects: Correspondence; Social life and customs; United States; Depressions; Description and travel; Family Welfare Association of America; Politics and government; Community Chests and Councils of America; Slavery; Ethnic relations; Mormons; Religion; Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America; Economic conditions; Folklore; American Public Welfare Association; United States. Federal Emergency Relief Administration; Urban folklore; African Americans; Ethnic groups
Other titles: American life histories : manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.; Born in slavery: slave narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938.
Description: Series A. includes correspondence, memoranda, speeches, essays, scripts, plays, oral testimony in the form of life histories, folklore material, field reports, notes, transcripts of documents, inventories, lists, statements, instructions, surveys, critical appraisals, administrative records, graphs, drawings, maps, and other records.  Subjects include production of American Guide-books which were intended to encourage travel to various states to bolster the economy during the Great Depression, rural and urban folklore, customs of social and ethnic groups, and African Americans both slaves and ex-slaves.  Folklorists include Benjamin Albert Botkin and John A. Lomax.  Authors include Nelson Algren, Sterling Brown, Jack Conroy, and Richard Wright.  Correspondents include Henry Alsberg, Merle Colby, George Cronin, Joseph Gaer, Reed Harris, and Claire Laning.

Series B includes correspondence, memoranda, reports, surveys, notes, data sheets, lists, instructional manuals, personnel records, transcripts of documents, newspaper articles, catalog entries, newspaper articles, and index cards.  Subjects include church and religious activity in Washington, D.C., boards, commissions, and departments of the nation's capitol, and Mormons in Utah.

Series C includes speeches, reports, publications, financial material, personnel forms, procedural and instructional manuals, press releases, newsletters, bulletins, promotional material, statistical data, graphs, illustrations, photographs, and related records.  Documents the social welfare programs of the Depression era including the U.S. Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the U.S. Work Projects Administration, and private organizations including American Public Welfare Association, Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America, Community Chests and Councils of America, and Family Welfare Association.

Series D consists of card files from an indexing project of the slave narratives.
Notes: Microfilm edition of slave narratives also available in the Library of Congress Microforms Reading Room, no. 974 (E); cataloged in record 83145588.

Open to research.

Life histories and corollary documents assembled by the Folklore Project with the Federal Writer's effort, 1936-1940, also available through the Library of Congress Web site under the title, American life histories : manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940.

Slave narratives available through the Library of Congress Web site under the title, Born in slavery: slave narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938.

Microfilm edition of inventory of Mormon diaries available, no. 7,465.

Microfilm edition of containers A693-705 available, no. 19,048.

Microfilm edition of containers A917-A932 available, no. 23,423 (Negative : 974 (E)).

Microfilm edition of containers A1040-1080 (A1041-1080 available only on microfilm) available, no. 19,334.

Microfilm produced from originals in the Manuscript Division. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress Photoduplication Service, 1941-1987.

Gift, Harvester Press Microform Publications Ltd., Brighton, Sussex, England, 1986-1987.

Transfer, U.S. Work Projects Administration, 1936-1944.

Other gift and transfer, 1981-1998.

transferred to Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

transferred to Library of Congress Geography and Map Division

transferred to Library of Congress Music Division.

The U.S. Works Progress Administration was created in 1935; in 1939 the name was changed to U.S. Work Projects Administration.

Federal Writer's Project, directed by Henry Alsberg, was created in 1935 as part of the U.S. Work Progress Administration to provide employment for historians, teachers, writers, librarians, and other white-collar workers.  The purpose of the project was to produce a series of sectional guide books under the name American Guide, focusing on the scenic, historical, cultural, and economic resources of the U.S.  Eventually new programs were developed and projects begun under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration were absorbed by the Federal Writers' Project.  Federal Writers' Project renamed Writers' Program.

Collection material in English.

Finding aid available in the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room and on Internet.

Containers A1041-1080 no longer exist and are available only on microfilm.