APPENDIX IV

REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE SURVEY OF FEDERAL ARCHIVES FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1938, BY THE ASSOCIATE NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE HISTORICAL RECORDS SURVEY IN CHARGE OF THE "INVENTORY OF FEDERAL ARCHIVES IN THE STATES"

Upon the termination of the Survey of Federal Archives as a separate Nation-wide Federal project on June 30, 1937, the surveying of most of the records of the Federal Government in the 48 States had been completed, but the work of compiling and making available the information thus secured in the form of a descriptive publication known as the Inventory of Federal Archives in the States remained unfinished. It was necessary, accordingly, to effect such administrative reorganizations as would make possible a continuation of the work begun by the Survey until this Inventory should be completed. Dr. Luther H. Evans, National Director of the Historical Records Survey, was of great assistance in making this possible. On July 1, 1937, or shortly thereafter, members of the staff of the Survey of Federal Archives in 24 States were transferred to the Historical Records Survey and authorized to continue their work upon the Inventory. Within a few weeks a number of State projects for continuing the work of the Survey of Federal Archives were organized. When this was done in States where the Historical Records Survey had taken over units of the former Survey of Federal Archives, those units were transferred to the new State projects, and the Historical Records Survey was relieved to this extent of the burden of continuing the work of the Survey of Federal Archives. On June 30, 1938, the work of the Survey of Federal Archives was being continued by the Historical Records Survey in 8 States and by separate State projects in 29 States. In 11 States the work had been terminated.

In order that the supervision of the editorial work being performed in the States might continue, 15 members of the Washington office of the Survey of Federal Archives were transferred to the coordinating project of the Historical Records Survey in Washington. The services of the other 12 members of the SFA staff in Washington were then terminated, and during the year the editorial staff was further reduced by transfers and by resignations to 10. Dr. Philip M. Hamer of The National Archives was appointed to the staff of the Historical Records Survey without pay as Associate National Director in charge of the Inventory of Federal Archives in the States. Certain other members of the staff of The National Archives, including Dr. G. Philip Bauer, Dr. Henry P. Beers, Mr. Carl L. Gregory, and Mr. Siert F. Riepma, formerly members of the staff of the Survey of Federal Archives, continued to give a portion of their time to the completion of certain phases of the work of the Survey.

While the Survey of Federal Archives as a Works Progress Administration Federal project ceased to exist on June 30, 1937, it has seemed convenient to continue to designate by that name the three groups-units of the Historical Records Survey, separate State projects, and members of the staff of The National Archives-which, under the supervision of the former National Director of the Survey of Federal Archives, have continued the work that the Federal project had begun.

The surveying of Federal archives was carried on during the fiscal year 1938, to a relatively small extent, in Maine, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky, Utah, Nevada, and California. In some instances, where the original survey had not been satisfactory, a limited amount of resurveying was undertaken. The major occupation of field workers and members of the staff of the Washington office, however, was the compilation of information secured by the Survey into the Inventory. With the assistance of the Historical Records Survey plans were made to have this Inventory mimeographed and distributed to interested libraries and governmental agencies. The preliminary work on the Inventory is done in the field, and approximately 70 percent of this had been completed by June 30, 1938. The preliminary manuscript is edited in the Washington office and is then returned to the field offices for necessary corrections and final typing. After the final copy has been approved by members of the editorial staff in Washington, the Inventory is again returned to the field offices for mimeographing.

The plan for the organization of the Inventory is as follows: Series I consists of reports on the administration of the Survey, acknowledgments, and general discussions of the location, condition, and content of Federal archives in the States. Succeeding series contain in inventory form the detailed information secured by workers of the Survey, a separate series number being assigned to each of the executive departments (except the Department of State) and to other major units of the Federal Government. Within each series, No. 1 is a general introduction to the field organization and records of the governmental agency concerned, and the succeeding numbers contain the inventory proper, separate numbers being assigned to each State in alphabetical order. Thus, in each series the inventory for Alabama is No. 2, that for Arizona, No. 3, that for Arkansas, No. 4, and so on. For each local office, information regarding each group or series of related records is presented in the following order: Title, inclusive dates ("to date" indicating an open file at the time the information was secured), general description of informational content, description of the system of filing or indexing (if any), a statement of frequency and purpose of use, form of the record itself (bound volumes, sheets in folders, etc.), linear footage, description of the containers, physical condition of the records (not stated if satisfactory), location by room number or other identifying information, and, finally, the number of the Survey form on which this information was originally recorded by the Survey worker and from which it was abstracted for the Inventory. These forms are on file in The National Archives. When one contains substantial information on addenda sheets that has not been included in the mimeographed abstract, indication of this is given by use of the reference "see addenda."

During the year progress has been made in the compilation, by the field staff, of a directory of buildings and rooms in which Federal archives are stored. The making of certain statistical analyses of the age, volume, and conditions of storage of the records of the several agencies of the Government has been begun.

Certain subsidiary work, which does not delay completion of the Inventory, has been undertaken by several of the State projects. The Massachusetts project compiled and issued in mimeographed form Ship Registers, District of Barnstable, Massachusetts, 1814-1913. This met with such a favorable reception from persons interested in maritime history that work was begun on the compilation of information concerning ship registers in other districts of Massachusetts and in Maine, Rhode Island, and California. The Louisiana project has made abstracts of certain old records of the General Land Office, has translated from Spanish into English records of the Spanish government of West Florida and despatches of the Spanish governors of Louisiana, has indexed some of the records of the United States district court, and has compiled from records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation information on navigation casualties on the Mississippi River, 1866-1910. The Pennsylvania project has completed a calendar of the Daniel Parker papers in the custody of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, many of which are closely related to the files of the Department of War in Washington. The Nebraska project has abstracted many of the records of the United States district courts in Nebraska. Projects in Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Utah have assisted custodians by undertaking to put into order disorganized files.

It is expected that during the coming fiscal year the work of the Survey will be completed with the issuance of a final summary and analysis of the findings of the Survey and of the remaining portions of the Inventory of Federal Archives in the States.

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