Title: Tennessee WPA/National Youth Administration Records

Date/Date Range :   1933-1942

Extent: 0.1 linear feet

Abstract:

The Tennessee WPA/National Youth Administration Records, 1933-1942, contain 74 items and is separated into three series. Series I includes 30 memoranda, generally about form and payroll changes from Bruce Overton, the State Director in Tennessee. Series II consists of business letters from or to D.B. Cornwell, the District Supervisor in Knoxville, TN. There are also blank forms, letterheads, and various undated lists about Work Projects for the National Youth Administration in Tennessee in Series III.

Call number: MS-2340

Repository: University of Tennessee Special Collections Library, Knoxville, TN

Aquisition Information:

Collection was purchased in April 1992.

Access Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Copyright:

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of Item], Tennessee WPA/National Youth Administration Records, MS-2340. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Special Collections Library.

Collection consists of a single folder divided into three series: Memoranda to Supervisors; Business Letters; and Other Documents.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) employed millions of people throughout the United States from 1935 to 1943. The WPA's Tennessee state administrator Harry S. Berry, headquartered in Nashville, TN, had them constructing roads, dams, bridges, and more. The WPA in Tennessee also had many projects and programs designed to employ people in interesting areas, such as excavating Native American burial mounds, completing airports and landing fields in Jellico, Cookeville, Chattanooga, and other cities, restoring historic Civil War sites, and working in education, public health, and the arts.

The National Youth Administration (NYA) was designed to solve unemployment among disgruntled youth during the Depression. Vocational classes, scholarships and funds, and part-time jobs became available to students, while those out of school received on-the-job training in federal work projects. The NYA employees built vocational and recreational buildings all over Tennessee, including workshops and Boy Scout lodges. In 1937, the focus became skills development, and a division was set up for assistance to African-Americans. In 1939, the NYA began to emphasize skills training in defense-related industries.

This collection, the Tennessee WPA/National Youth Administration Records, 1933-1942, contains 74 items and is separated into three series. Most of these items are memoranda about form and payroll changes from Bruce Overton, the State Director in Tennessee, and are business letters from or to D.B. Cornwell, the District Supervisor in Knoxville, TN. There are also blank forms, letterheads, and various undated lists about Work Projects for the National Youth Administration in Tennessee.

Series I -- Memoranda to Supervisors, 1937-1939, contains 30 memoranda. Bruce Overton sent most of these items to Supervisors and District Managers in Tennessee. These include information about bulletin and form revisions and nullifications.

Series II -- Business letters, 1933-1942, contains 19 items, usually from Stacey M. Dobbs, Supervisor of Projects in Tennessee, and to or from D.B. Cornwell. One letter is from 1933, two from 1937, two from 1940, one from 1941, one from 1942, and none from 1934 to 1936. The remaining items are from 1938 and 1939.

In Series III -- Other documents, 1937-1939, there is a list dated 1937 and two torn payroll sheets from 1939; however, the remaining 23 items are undated. Among these documents are lists for Work Project data, payroll data, and county numbers, as well as blank letterheads and payroll sheets.

• United States. Works Progress Administration.
• United States. National Youth Administration.
• Depressions -- 1929 -- Tennessee, East.
• Knoxville (Tenn.) -- History.