Archives West Finding Aid

The Work Projects Administration (originally the Works Progress Administration) was established in 1935 with Harry Hopkins at its head. Under Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration the WPA directed all relief projects except the CCC and the PWA. It was established to complete projects on public property at federal expense. By 1943, its termination date, the WPA had spent eleven billion dollars, given work to eight million people, and completed 250,000 public-works projects. President Roosevelt believed that artists, actors, musicians and writers were entitled to government aid during the depression, as well as farmers and other workers.

Two WPA programs undertaken in Montana were the Federal Writers' Project and the Historical Records Survey.

Montana's Writers' Project, guided by Byron Crane, employed teachers and writers to write state and local histories, interview pioneers, and prepare guidebooks for tourists. A few of the project's notable publications were Copper Camp (Butte history), Land of Nakoda (Assiniboine Indians), and the Montana State Almanac. In addition other unpublished accounts explored the state's livestock and mining history.

Montana's Historical Records Survey, headed by Paul C. Phillips, completed a massive statewide survey of private and public repositories. Included were records in Montana's fifty-six county court houses, state agencies, various civic organizations, churches, and federal offices located in the state. The project's field workers systematically surveyed these records and prepared inventories that were later published.