Historical Records Survey

Historical Records Survey
Name	Historical Records Survey
Formation	1935
Founder	Works Progress Administration
Type	Federal relief project
Location	United States
Region served	Nationwide
Parent organization	Works Progress Administration

Historical Records Survey

The Historical Records Survey was a New Deal program created in 1935 under the Works Progress Administration to catalog, index, and preserve archival materials in the United States during the Great Depression. Operating alongside projects like the Federal Writers' Project and the Federal Theatre Project, the Survey coordinated with state and local institutions including Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and numerous state archives to generate inventories, finding aids, and bibliographies. Its work intersected with initiatives associated with the National Archives and influenced later programs such as the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Background and Establishment

The Survey emerged from debates among New Deal administrators, archivists, and scholars who included figures associated with Alvin J. Johnson-era historical publishing and leaders connected to Herbert Hoover-era commissions on public records. Sponsored by the Works Progress Administration under direction figures linked to Harry Hopkins and coordinated with staff at the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration (predecessor agencies), the Survey sought to employ historians, librarians, and clerical workers displaced by the Depression. Early planning drew on expertise associated with the American Historical Association and the Society of American Archivists, incorporating standards advocated by scholars who had worked on projects connected to the New Deal.

Organizational Structure and Personnel

The Survey operated through state offices modeled after federal field structures, connecting to municipal bodies in cities such as New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, and Los Angeles. Leadership included administrators appointed from the WPA and professional archivists with ties to institutions like the Library of Congress and university archives at Harvard University, Columbia University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Chicago. Staff comprised record clerks, professional historians, librarians, and typists; many had backgrounds linked to the American Library Association and the American Historical Association. Collaboration occurred with municipal archives in locales such as Baltimore, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Detroit, and with county clerks and state historical societies including the Massachusetts Historical Society and the California Historical Society.

Projects and Collections

The Survey produced a wide range of inventories, card indexes, and bibliographies covering county records, court documents, manuscript collections, and newspaper files. Major undertakings included inventories of county courthouses in states like New York (state), Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Texas; indexes to nineteenth-century newspapers in cities such as St. Louis and Cincinnati; and transcriptions of colonial-era documents pertaining to regions including New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, and the South. Collaborative projects involved repositories such as the New York Public Library, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs records. The Survey compiled guides to private manuscript collections associated with families who appear in sources on events like the Civil War and the American Revolution, and created card catalogs that later served researchers at the National Archives and state historical commissions.

Methodology and Survey Techniques

The Survey applied systematic bibliographic and archival techniques informed by contemporary practice at the Library of Congress and by standards promoted by the Society of American Archivists. Teams used standardized inventory forms, descriptive cataloging, and indexing protocols adapted for courthouse, probate, and municipal records; these methods paralleled cataloging efforts at the Library of Congress and the card systems used by university libraries at Yale University and Princeton University. Surveyors employed fieldwork practices including paleography training for reading nineteenth-century handwriting and conservation assessments resembling procedures used by conservators at the Smithsonian Institution. Photographic documentation and microfilming experiments were piloted in cooperation with local historical societies and public libraries such as the Chicago Public Library.

Impact and Reception

Responses to the Survey varied among contemporaneous stakeholders. Professional organizations like the American Historical Association and the American Library Association generally praised the employment of historians and librarians, while some state officials and private collectors expressed concerns about federal involvement in local records. Scholars at institutions including Columbia University and Harvard University used Survey outputs for research on subjects ranging from the Progressive Era to immigration histories tied to ports such as Ellis Island. The materials produced were widely used by genealogists consulting records in states like Virginia and Kentucky and by legal historians working with court dockets from counties in Missouri and Georgia.

Legacy and Influence on Archival Practice

The Survey left a durable legacy in American archival infrastructure by creating finding aids, inventories, and trained labor that informed postwar archival expansion at the National Archives and state archives systems. Techniques refined during the Survey contributed to later standards adopted by the Society of American Archivists and to grant programs established by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Many Survey-produced inventories remain in the holdings of repositories such as the New York State Archives, the Massachusetts Archives, and municipal archives in cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco, preserving a documentary foundation for research into periods including the Antebellum United States and the Gilded Age. Its model of federally funded archival surveys influenced subsequent projects in the latter twentieth century that intersected with institutions such as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Smithsonian Institution.

Category:Archives in the United States