Archives West Finding Aid

The papers of Arthur Earl Victor consist chiefly of correspondence, enclosures and reports regarding Victor's involvement with housing agencies and programs, and correspondence, research notes and drafts concerned with historical projects and writings undertaken by Victor. Also included are a variety of documents concerning personal business, volunteer activities, and his earlier federal employment with the Soil Conservation Service.

The first series contains correspondence pertaining to Victor's work with the CCC and the NHA as well as some letters pertaining to his research on the Mayview Tramway and the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The latter are good primary sources as they were written by people who operated and used the Mayview Tramway and who were related to victims of the massacre.

The second series contains personal and business files arranged categorically beginning with the most personal records and ending with business records for the lapidary shop. Also included is a folder on the Victor family genealogy and pioneer history written by his aunt in 1936.

The third series is arranged categorically into manuscripts, typescripts and research. Included are Victor's published stories about pioneer life and work in the logging camps.

The forth series contains records of land surveys, and sale records of property in Benton and Franklin counties (Washington) during the 1970s.

The fifth series contains the remnants of Victor's files on two Spokane organizations, the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) and the Home Builder's Association.

Series six, Federal Agencies, begins with Civilian Conservation Corps records and a file on the Soil Conservation Service. The National Housing Agency decimal file begins with file number 43 in box five. This series does not contain the complete NHA decimal file, but rather a selection kept by Victor in his capacity as Housing Expeditor and removed in 1947 when his office closed. Some interesting items include: FHA article, "Relationship Between Condition of Dwellings and Rentals by Race", (1946), and 1940s housing project records for Lewiston, Pullman, Orofino, Spokane, Grand Coulee and Yakima.

Series seven contains Victor's pocket notebooks, a day diary, business cards, some piano music and one published volume, "The Finger Post to Public Business," (1864). The oversize folder contains an assortment of Newspapers saved from the 1940s and 1950s, FHA and NHA Veteran's Housing posters, maps, building blueprints, and a 1904 Washington General Election Ballot.