NTE2cg376.xml Guide to the Arthur Earl Victor Papers 1927-1944 Victor (Arthur Earl) Papers Finding aid prepared by Stephen E. Balzarini Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections © 2021 Finding aid encoded by Suzanne James-Bacon. 2021 Finding aid written in English. English. Finding aid based on DACS 2nd Edition ( Describing Archives: A Content Standard). Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives and Special Collections Cage 376 Victor, Arthur Earl Arthur Earl Victor Papers 1927-1944 4 Linear feet of shelf space 8 Boxes Correspondence, reports, memoranda, field diaries and notebooks, photographs and printed material regarding Civilian Conservation Corps activities (particularly in combating soil erosion) in Washington, Idaho, and Oregon. Collection materials are in English

Arthur Earl Victor was born on March 30, 1900, in May View, Washington. He attended high school in Oregon and in Pullman, Washington. He served in the United States Navy from June 1918 to March 1919. Victor attended Oregon State College at Corvallis for a year after leaving the Navy. From June 1920 to March 1934 when he went to work for the Federal Government, Victor held a number of positions which primarily involved his skills with machinery and carpentry. From March to May 1934 Victor worked for the U.S. Geological Survey in Pullman; in May of that year he went to work for the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) as an engineer-foreman with duties as camp engineer in the first Soil Erosion 200-man Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in the Pacific Northwest. Victor was in charge of developing methods of erosion control on gullies, developed springs, masonry dams, seeding, and sodding. He also developed work and cost reports and job training classes for foremen and enrollees. In June 1935 he was promoted to Assistant State Administrator of the CCC and in December of that year he was promoted again to Assistant Regional Administrator. In this position Victor assisted in the development of an organization to supervise 18 CCC camps in the three Northwest states. Victor was responsible for building construction, equipment, purchase, maintenance, and reports, and enrollee education and training. In June 1938 he was assigned to the Regional Information Division which focused his attention on training for foremen and enrollees. This position lasted for a little over a year and in November 1939 Victor returned to his administrative duties as Assistant Regional Administrator. During his tenure with the CCC, Victor traveled extensively giving educational presentations about soil erosion to farmers and CCC personnel. The documentation in the Victor papers ends in late 1942 at which time Victor was still with the Soil Conservation Service in his capacity as Assistant Regional Administrator.

The Civilian Conservation Corp was created by an act approved by Congress on June 28, 1937, as amended, to succeed the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) which was established by Executive order number 6101 of April 5, 1933. The CCC was reorganized and made a part of the Federal Security Agency as of July 1, 1939. In May 1940 the Corps began converting to defense work on military reservations and forest protection. The Labor-Federal Security Appropriation Act of 1943 provided for the liquidation of the CCC not later than June 30, 1943.

The Arthur Earl Victor collection includes Civilian Conservation Corps material from 1927 through 1942, though the bulk of the material covers the period 1934 through 1942. The papers are arranged in five series: Correspondence; Subject File; Publications, Pamphlets, Reports and Guides; Notebooks; and Photographs and Slides.

The Correspondence series, covering 1934-1942 contains both incoming and outgoing correspondence from Victor and is primarily to and from his superiors in the Soil Conservation Service, particularly with his immediate supervisor, A.W. Middleton. This series also contains Victor's private correspondence with friends, his applications for promotion within the CCC, job records and descriptions, and income tax records.

The second series, the Subject File, was constructed by the processor from non-correspondence material in the accession. It contains material related to Victor's work with the CCC. Included in the Subject File are lessons and course material for training CCC enrollees, CCC newspapers and clippings, construction information for CCC buildings, soil erosion information, and vouchers detailing Victor's travels from 1936 through 1942.

The third series consists of publications, pamphlets, reports, and guides. The bulk of this material was published by the SCS, the CCC or other government agencies. Included in this series is an article by Victor for Northwest Science, 1935, titled: Some Effects of Cultivation Upon Stream History and Upon the Topography of the Palouse Region.

The fourth series, Notebooks, includes Victor's notebooks during his employment with the CCC: notebooks, 1935-1939; field diaries, 1937-1942; appointment books, 1934-1937; personnel notebooks for SCS, ECW, and CCC; equipment notebook, 1942; intra-office memo notebook, 1937; telegram book, 1935; time books, 1927 and 1942; lesson notes, 1934; travel expenses, 1937-1938; and general notebooks, undated.

The fifth series, Photographs and Slides, consists of about 1100 photographs and slides of CCC personnel, camps, equipment, work, and activities in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho).

The papers are arranged in five series. The first series, Correspondence, is arranged chronologically by year. The second series, the Subject File, is arranged alphabetically by subject.

This collection is open and available for research use.

Copyright restrictions may apply.

[Item description]

Arthur Earl Victor Papers, 1927-1944 (Cage 376)

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

The papers of Arthur Earl Victor (b. 1900) were donated to the Washington State University Libraries in July 1977, by Arthur Earl Victor (77-40).

The papers were arranged and described by Stephen E. Balzarini. The photographs were arranged by Dave Smested.

Arthur Earl Victor Papers, 1882-1986 (Cage 594)

Other CCC-related archival collections in MASC:

Jay Mark Gleason Papers, 1933-1942 (Cage 26)

Robert Wesley Carroll Papers, 1938-1972 (Cage 75)

George T. Spinning Papers, 1935-1938 (Cage 252)

Elmo Richardson Papers, 1930-2011 (Cage 582)

Stuart Wright Civilian Conservation Corps Scrapbooks, 1933-1936 (Cage 784)

Civilian Conservation Corps Newsletters, Co. 554, Genesee, ID, 1937, undated (Cage 4953)

Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1312, Moscow, ID Roster, 1934-1935 (Cage 4960)

Civilian Conservation Corps Ephemera Collection, 1935-1940 (Cage 4992)

Civilian Conservation Corps, Camp Willow Creek, Co. 2524 Papers, 1936-1937 (Cage 5022)

Civilian Conservation Corps Educational Program Literature Collection, 1935-1936 (Cage 5033)

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Victor, Arthur Earl -- Archives. Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.) -- Records and correspondence. Civilian Conservation Corps (U.S.) -- History -- Sources. United States. Soil Conservation Service Soil conservation -- Northwest, Pacific Public Works Washington (State) Series 1: Correspondence 1 1 Correspondence undated 55 items 1 2-9 Correspondence 1934-1942 415 items Series 2: Subject File 1 10 Camp buildings 1938 2 items 1 11 Certified lists--Washington, Oregon, and Idaho 1935 8 items Course Material 1 12 Soil Conservation and Natural Resources undated 5 items 1 13 SCS Lessons, Units 1-6 undated 20 items Directories Regional Office Personnel; Project and Camp Personnel; Washington D.C. Personnel 1 14 1937-1939 20 items 1 15 1938-1939 40 items 1 16 SCS, Pacific Coast Region 1944 1 items 1 17 ECW Personnel undated 20 items 1 18 Educational Conference, CCC Nov. 1-3 1939 1 items 1 19 Erosion talk--Northwest Scientific Association, Dec 1934 15 items 1 20 Essays on Soil Conservation by Lewis-Clark High School Students 1938 25 items Film Strip Project 1 21 Correspondence 1941 1 items 1 22 Lessons (list of slides and text) 1938 70 items 1 23 Forms 1940 3 items 1 24 Gully Control 1934 6 items 1 25 Meteorology notes 1935 25 items Newspapers 1 26 CCC Review Oct-Dec 1935 5 items 1 27 Clippings 1934-1938 25 items 1 28 Clippings--CCC participation in winter of 1936 1936 30 items 1 29 Lewis-Clark Trail Blazer Oct 1935-Nov 1936 10 items 1 30 Contributions to the Northwester (newsletter) 25 items 1 31 Northwester, Vol. 1, Nos. 4, 5; Vol. 2, Nos. 1-7, 12; Vol. 3, Nos. 1, 2, 5. 13 items Nursery Buildings 1 32 Blueprints 1936 25 items 1 33 Correspondence with Consulting Architect 1936 95 items 1 34-36 Organizational Charts 1938 1941 20 items 1 37 Sagehen Dam, Gem Co., Idaho, Plans and Specs. 1937 1 items 1 38 Side Camps, Notes on 1940-1941 7 items 2 39 Training Specifications, Committee on CCC 1941 50 items 2 40-41 Travel Vouchers 1936-1942 115 items 2 42 Washington D.C. Trip Sept-Oct 1941 40 items 2 43 Work schedules undated 3 items Series 3 Publications, Pamphlets, Reports, and Guides 2 44 Farm Planning and Management Handbook 1941 1 items 2 45 Field Instructions, SCS, Region 11 1936 1 items 2 46 Instructions, CCC, 9th Corps Area 1935 1 items 2 47 Lord, Russell. "To Hold This Soil." SCS 1938 1 items 2 48 Pamphlets, Reports and Guides--SCS, CCC 20 items 2 49 Pamphlets 12 items 2 50 Victor, A.E. "Some Effects of Cultivation Upon Stream History." Northwest Science 1935 1 items Series 4: Notebooks 2 51 Notebooks 1935-1939 12 items 2 52 Field Diaries 1937-1942 23 items 2 53 Appointment Books 1934-1937 4 items 2 54 Personnel Notebooks--SCS, EWC, CCC 2 items 2 55 CCC Equipment Notebook 1942 1 items 2 56 Intra-Office Memo Notebook 1937 1 items 2 57 Western Union Telegram Book 1935 1 items 2 58 Time Books 1927 1942 2 items 2 59 Lesson Notes 1934 1 items 2 60 Traveling Expenses 1937-1938 5 items 2 61 General Notebooks undated 4 items Series 5: Photographs and Slides 3 62 Idaho, black and white photographs 5 items 3 63 Oregon, black and white photographs 16 items 3 64 Washington, black and white photographs 31 items 3 65 Aerial photographs, 8 x 10 black and white, taken Dale Sevarty, National Guard Pilot 1937-1938 37 items 3 66 Happy Canyon Dam, Oregon, black and white photographs (plus contact prints from nitrate 12-80) 1938 69 items 3 67 Equipment, black and white photographs 58 items 3 68 People (identified), black and white photographs 9 items 3 69 Unidentified, black and white 72 items 3 70 CCC Camps (Goldendale) and Soil Erosion, 35 mm negatives and unmounted transparencies (black and white) 120 items 3 71 Correspondence related to photographs 3 items 3 72 Photograph album of Soil Erosion Service, Project 6 (black and white photographs) 195 items 3 73 Description of slides in boxes 5-8 4 items Panoramas and oversized photographs 4 74 Dayton Camp 1936 1 items 4 75 Educational Advisors Meeting, Ft. Wright 1938 1 items 4 76 Garfield Camp, Pomeroy, WA 1936 1 items 4 77 Genesee Camp 1936 1 items 4 78 McConnell Camp, Boise, Idaho 1939 1 items 4 79 Moscow Camp undated 1 items 4 80 Moscow Camp 1936 1 items 4 81 Moscow Camp 1938 1 items 4 82 Moscow Camp 1938 1 items 4 83 Moscow Camp 1940 1 items 4 84 Sagehen Camp, Emmett, Idaho undated 1 items 4 85 Walla Walla Camp 1936 1 items 35 mm slides (for index, see: Folder 73) 5 Color slides of CCC related activities in the Pacific Northwest, taken by CCC photographer Mead 116 items 6 Color and black and white slides taken in Idaho 169 items 7 Color and black and white slides taken in Oregon 189 items 8 Color and black and white slides taken in Washington 168 items