The Historical Records Survey was initiated by presidential order of Franklin Delano Roosevelt on November 16, 1935. Its objective was to conduct a nationwide survey of state, county, and local government records. The Survey was part of a national arts program in the fields of writing, theater, arts, music and historical records which in size and cultural influence was unprecedented in the history of nations. The motivating purpose of the arts program, sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, was to provide employment for unemployed professional and white-collar workers.
World War II and growing Congressional dissatisfaction with continuance of the Works Projects Administration led to the practical termination of the uncompleted Survey in the summer of 1942, although the official ending of the Survey by Congressional action did not come until June 30, 1943.
Hundreds of inventories and guides were published nationally by the Historical Records Survey in the four main areas of government records, manuscripts, church records, and American imprints, as well as in a great variety of special subject areas. Publications included 664 county inventories, 19 state guides of manuscript depositories, 20 guides to manuscript collections, 20 church directories, 34 imprint checklists and 15,000,000 imprint slips, and 506 volumes of the inventory of records of federal agencies located outside of Washington, D.C.[1]
In Wisconsin, the director of the State Historical Society, Dr. Joseph Schafer, in March 1935, had proposed a survey of county and local records but had been unable to obtain backing. In mid-summer 1935 he assigned Alice Smith, curator of manuscripts at the Society, to survey the records in the Dane County courthouse, intending this as a pilot study applicable to the rest of the state. When the national Historical Records Survey came into existence, Schafer recommended that Smith be appointed as the Wisconsin state director and his suggestion was accepted by the Works Progress Administration. Smith began the operation of the Wisconsin Historical Records Survey in February 1936 and, as originally arranged, served until the end of June at which time she returned to her Society post. Jesse E. Boell, formerly the regional director of the Wisconsin Survey of Federal Archives Project, then became director of the Historical Records Survey in Wisconsin for all but the last few months of its life.
The Survey in Wisconsin, under the sponsorship of the University of Wisconsin and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, began with about 60 employees and eventually averaged 200 on the payroll with half being field workers. Its main office was in Madison, with branch editorial offices in Milwaukee and La Crosse. For purposes of field work, the state's 71 counties were divided into several districts, each with its own supervisor. The general procedure used by the Survey was to have field workers collect information concerning records being inventoried and transfer it to printed forms. The forms were then submitted to the editorial office where they were processed and edited and final drafts made and sent to the national office. After approval, the drafts were mimeographed, bound and distributed. Almost all publications of the Survey were based on the information contained in the Survey forms.
