Records from the Great Depression
Cath Madden Trindle
MAPS
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Among the collections at University of Southern California are
the WPA Land use survey maps for the City of Los
Angeles, 1933-1939.
This collection of 345
maps covering 460 square miles tracked land usage including: residential,
commercial, industrial, manufacturing, agricultural and vacant. Each of
these was broken down further. For example agricultural land was shown
as mixed, livestock, field crops, row crops, bush fruits, orchard,
nursery, woodland, or farming.
This is one example of
individualized projects that took place around the country. Read
newspapers of the time for clues on what might have been happening where your
family lived. Search the special collections of Universities, Historical
Societies, County Archives, Libraries, etc. for materials created by those
projects.
This series of
articles and blogs is intended to point you in the right direction to do your
own research. There is a wealth of records providing background
material on the places where our families lived and perhaps on the programs in
which they participated. Some of the records at the National Archives
which were not previously covered include:
69.8 Cartographic Records 1933-1940 Mostly published and blueprint city and county
transportation, land, and census study maps resulting from various WPA projects
69.11 Still Pictures documenting the programs and activities of
the Alphabet Soup Era 1922-44. This collection of thousand of pictures includes aerial photos
among its other treasures.
69.4.3 Records of the Division of
Information. Collections include
over 43000 photographs, more than 100 films, press releases, clippings and much
more. These include publications of the other Alphabet Soup Agencies.
69.4.4 Records of the Division of Engineering
and Construction History: Created in December 1935 with the responsibility of planning
and supervising construction projects for highways, airports, dams, and
sanitation works.
69.5.7 Survey of the Federal Archives (RG 69.5.7) Organized in January 1936 as Federal Project
No. 4, with the National Archives as cooperating sponsor. Became part of
Historical Records Survey, on a reduced basis, in June 1937. Terminated June
30, 1942. Along with correspondence and reports there are over 3000 photographs
in the NARA collections.
69.5.9 Records of the National Research Project (NRP) This project was set up to study industrial techniques and their effect on employment. The collection includes photographs of workers and some housing situations.
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