Research


Scope and Content Note

This series contains completed forms, control sheets, and some correspondence collected for preparation of a Historical Album of New York State. The album was intended to contain data and photographs of every significant historic site in the state and data on important New York natives and residents. The project was a cooperative effort between the Works Progress Administration's (WPA) New York State Writers' Project and the Division of Archives and History. It began on 1 January 1941 and ended, incomplete, on 1 April 1942 when the Writers' Project ceased operating.

Subseries 1, Geographic File: This file contains a form for each historic person or site identified in each upstate county and New York City. Four forms were used: HA-1 for persons; HA-2 for markers, monuments, plaques, sites, and statues; HA-3 for engineering works (e.g. aqueducts, bridges, canals, dams, locks, tunnels, and railroads); and HA-4 for buildings (e.g. churches, forts, homes, public buildings, taverns).

The form for persons (HA-1) gives name, date and place of birth, education (New York State only), occupation and accomplishments, residence, place of death, and place of burial. Blanks are provided for information on the existence and location of the person's residence, school, historical objects, monuments or statues to the person, and remarks. If photographs of these sites or objects were made, they are noted on the form.

The forms for markers, engineering works, and buildings (HA-2, HA-3, HA-4) have blanks for name or classification, location, directions to location, owner, description, historical significance, photographs, and remarks. The amount of information beyond basic identification varies greatly on these forms depending on the extent of field research completed before the project was discontinued. Some forms have attachments with lengthy narratives about the person or site while others merely identify the name and location. Each file also contains a "control sheet" on which is noted the dates each form was sent to the field and returned.

Subseries 2, Name File: This file contains copies of HA-1 forms only for the entire State.

Subseries 3, Administrative Files: These include correspondence of the WPA staff, copies of blank forms, procedural instructions to field workers, narrative weekly reports of the project photographer and WPA supervisors, and project publicity.

11891-78A: This accretion (1941-1942) contains miscellaneous forms (HA-1, HA-2, HA-3, HA-4) from several counties. The forms were sent to the Division of Archives and History in 1942 as the Historical Album project was winding down.

11891-10: This accretion consists of records nearly duplicating those in Subseries 2 of 11891-78. The name file in 11891-10 likewise consists solely of copies of HA-1 forms covering the entire state. The forms in this accretion contain edits that do not appear in the forms in 11891-78, making it likely that these are working copies used to produce final versions contained in 11891-78. Whereas the forms in 11891-78 indicate counties (or New York City) to which copies were to be sent, those in 11891-10 do not have any such notations.