The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001 Page: 267
673 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Food Administration Papers for Texas
dissolution of the agency, most of its papers from the central and state
offices languished in the vacated rooms of its temporary buildings in
Washington, D.C. Late in 1927, the papers were transferred to the De-
partment of Commerce on a temporary basis, until a permanent build-
ing for housing government records could be constructed. (Interim
storage for agency papers included the White House garage.) The
Archivist of the United States received custody of the papers on January
6, 1936, and the papers were among the first records transferred to the
National Archives Building. By February 1937, Archives personnel re-
ported that they had accessioned 17,054 cubic feet and 22,030 linear
feet of Food Administration records.'2
In February 1941 the National Archives embarked on an effort to
compile finding aids that would make their records more available for
use by government officials, scholars, and other investigators. They iden-
tified "record groups" for the major collections of material and then
completed for each one a "preliminary checklist" or a list of units of ma-
terial as they were found. Such a checklist was to be followed by a "pre-
liminary inventory," a revised list issued in processed form for general
use, and lastly a "final inventory." The Food Administration papers be-
came Record Group 4.13
Significantly, the National Archives effort during the early 1940s spec-
ified that "[f] or the duration of the present war, the work under this
program is to be restricted to the preparation of preliminary finding
aids covering records bearing upon war or post-war problems." Thus
during the early processing history of the Food Administration papers,
the criteria focused on how those papers related to World War I might
inform United States plans and actions during World War II. Topics of
interest to historians today such as cultural attitudes regarding class,
gender, food, and the role of government, although not considered dur-
ing the preparation of early finding aids, can be mined by diligent study
of the materials.14
A National Archives preliminary inventory of the Food Administration
done during the 1940s in Washington, D.C., notes that certain of the
records "have been destroyed as having little or no permanent value."
These materials were "largely of duplicate and triplicate files of forms and
questionnaires but included some original records of routine character
Stephen Ponder, "Popular Propaganda: The Food Administration in World War I," Journalism
and Mass Communication Quarterly, 72 (1995), 539-550; Lawrence O. Christensen, "World War I
in Missouri," Missoun Histoncal Review, go (1996), 330-354, 410o-428.
2 Inventory, xiix-xiv; Office memorandum from Arthur H. Leavitt to Thomas M. Owen Jr.,
Feb. 12, 1937, Food Administration Papers, Accession Records (NA).
" Inventory, in.
'4 Ibid.267
2000
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 104, July 2000 - April, 2001, periodical, 2001; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101221/m1/319/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.