Work Progress Administration (WPA) Historical Records Survey

United States

Archives and Libraries

Work Progress Administration (WPA) Historical Records Survey

Brief History

The Works Progress Administration (WPA), renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration, was created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to help increase the amount of jobs in the country to combat unemployment. One WPA project, the Historical Records Survey, included inventories of courthouses, archives, and libraries for each state in the United States. These inventories describe the collections available in those repositories during the time period between 1935 when the program began to when it was dissolved in 1943.

Repositories

Repositories for materials created by the Work Projects Administrators of the Historical Records Survey (HRS) project are listed here by state. Most repositories do not house these materials in a single collection, and many items are not online. However, some historical materials may not be available anywhere else, making these HRS repositories valuable resources.

Location	Facility
Alabama	Alabama Department of Archives and History
Arizona	Arizona State Library, Archives & Public Records
Arkansas	University of Arkansas Libraries
California	California State Archives University of California Berkeley University of California Irvine Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Colorado	Colorado State Archives
Connecticut	Connecticut State Library
Delaware	Delaware Public Archives
District of Columbia	Library of Congress Daughters of the American Revolution Library
Florida	State Library of Florida Jacksonville Historical Society University of Florida Gainsville
Georgia	Georgia Archives Georgia Historical Society University of Georgia
Hawaii	(Was not a state during WPA timeframe)
Idaho	Idaho State Archives
Illinois	Illinois State Archives University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Indiana	Indiana State Library Indiana Historical Bureau
Iowa	State Historical Society of Iowa Iowa University Libraries
Kansas	Kansas State Historical Society
Kentucky	University of Kentucky at Lexington
Louisiana	Louisiana Department of Archives Louisiana State University Libraries Louisiana Historical Society
Maine	Maine State Library
Maryland	Maryland State Archives
Massachusetts	Massachusetts State Archives Massachusetts State Library American Antiquarian Society New England Historic Genealogical Society
Michigan	Detroit Public Library Library of Michigan Michigan History Center University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library
Minnesota	Minnesota Historical Society
Mississippi	Mississippi Department of Archives and History
Missouri	University of Missouri Columbia Western Historical Manuscripts Collection
Montana	Montana State University Montana Historical Society
Nebraska	History Nebraska
Nevada	Nevada Historical Society
New Hampshire	New Hampshire State Library University of New Hampshire Library
New Jersey	New Jersey State Library Rutgers University Libraries New Jersey State Historical Society
New Mexico	University of New Mexico
New York	New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections The Buffalo History Museum East Hampton Library Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum Hofstra University Special Collections Onondaga County Public Libraries Rochester Public Library Westchester County Historical Society American Jewish Historical Society New York Historical Society Columbia University Libraries Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art The Center for Brooklyn History New York Public Library New York City Department of Records and Information Services Queens College Library Staten Island Historical Society Staten Island Museum
North Carolina	North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
North Dakota	North Dakota State Library State Historical Society of North Dakota
Ohio	Ohio History Connection Ohio University Libraries Western Reserve Historical Society
Oklahoma	Oklahoma Historical Society Oklahoma Department of Libraries
Oregon	Oregon State Libraries University of Oregon Libraries
Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Rhode Island	Rhode Island State Library
South Carolina	South Carolina Department of Archives and History College of Charleston Library University of South Carolina Thomas Cooper Library
South Dakota	University of South Dakota
Tennessee	Tennessee State Library and Archives Chattanooga Public Library Knox County Public Library University of Tennessee Knoxville Libraries
Texas	University of Texas Austin
Utah	FamilySearch Library Utah State Historical Society Brigham Young University
Vermont	Vermont State Archives Vermont History Center
Virginia	Library of Virginia
Washington	Washington State University Washington State Historical Society
West Virginia	West Virginia Division of Culture and History West Virginia University Library
Wisconsin	Wisconsin Historical Society
Wyoming	Wyoming State Archives Wyoming State Library

Additional Resources

• Records of the Work Projects Administration (WPA) at the National Archives (NARA).
• The WPA Historical Records Survey : a Guide to the Unpublished Inventories, Indexes, and Transcripts. Comp. by Loretta L. Hefner. Society of American Archivists (Chicago), 1980. Online at: FamilySearch Digital Library

National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C.