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- [Scrapbook from a National Youth Administration (NYA) Project in West Virginia]
[Scrapbook from a National Youth Administration (NYA) Project in West Virginia]
[Scrapbook from a National Youth Administration (NYA) Project in West Virginia]
A scrapbook of material singularly documenting the time Anna L. Hereford (1917-1993) of rural Nicholas County, West Virginia spent in the New Deal-era National Youth Administration (NYA) program’s Lock-Six work project in South Charleston, West Virginia. The NYA operated from 1935 to 1943. It was organized under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and transferred into administration of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) following the Reorganization Act of 1939. It served American youth, with a concentration on underserved, rural populations, ages 16-25.
The Administration's final report published by the GPO in 1944 provided the following summary on the project:
"In November 1938, NYA made arrangements with the Navy Department to take over two small unused buildings, each approximately 130 by 300 feet in size, at the South Charleston Naval Ordnance Plant. The first youth were employed in December and were set to work moving obsolete patterns and other items stored in the buildings, cleaning and repairing them for installation as equipment machinery for the work project.
By February 1939, 250 NYA boys were living and working there. Peak enrollment was reached in January 1943, when 825 youth were employed. Girls also were enrolled and did clerical and shop work. No discrimination was made in the selection of youth because of color, creed, politics, or national origin. Practically every nationality was represented in the resident group. There was no segregation of Negro workers in project work, although they had separate living quarters.
This resident center also served as a parent project for local work units in the surrounding neighborhoods, where transportation was feasible. By May 1943, the South Charleston project had served 12,000 youth from West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. [...] The boys and girls who came to the South Charleston resident project often had lived in remote rural areas where work and educational opportunities were limited. They learned trades and occupations which fitted them for better industrial employment, for the military services, and for earning their own livings in the future." (pp. 190-194)
Book highlights include an invitation to a Marine Corps dance signed by an H[ilary]. G. Stout, whom she would later marry ; a 6pp. mimeograph publication titled WELCOME, which includes detailed descriptions of the project grounds and two line drawn building maps ; a single mimeographed issue of THE ARMONIA (Vol. 1, No. 7 ; December 22, 1939), the project's official monthly magazine ; an original cafeteria menu ; about a dozen examples of humorous or poetic writings by project members ; internal project forms ; etc....
Overall a dense and well preserved primary record of one young West Virginia woman's time in the National Youth Administration.
[Women in New Deal Programs] : [National Youth Administration]. MY [LOCK]-6 "SCRAP" BOOK - [Cover Title -Original Scrapbook]. South Charleston, West Virginia: (1939-1940). Handmade scrapbook. Approximately 8 1/2" x 11." Plain tan paper wrappers with a colored pencil title illustration to front. 48 plain paper leaves with snapshot photographs (18 total), ephemeral scrap, article clippings, documents, etc... mounted to rectos only. A few blank documents bound in at rear and two mimeograph publications laid-in loose. Some mild handling wear inherent to vernacular production, else very good overall.
A scrapbook of material singularly documenting the time Anna L. Hereford (1917-1993) of rural Nicholas County, West Virginia spent in the New Deal-era National Youth Administration (NYA) program’s Lock-Six work project in South Charleston, West Virginia. The NYA operated from 1935 to 1943. It was organized under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and transferred into administration of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) following the Reorganization Act of 1939. It served American youth, with a concentration on underserved, rural populations, ages 16-25.
The Administration's final report published by the GPO in 1944 provided the following summary on the project:
"In November 1938, NYA made arrangements with the Navy Department to take over two small unused buildings, each approximately 130 by 300 feet in size, at the South Charleston Naval Ordnance Plant. The first youth were employed in December and were set to work moving obsolete patterns and other items stored in the buildings, cleaning and repairing them for installation as equipment machinery for the work project.
By February 1939, 250 NYA boys were living and working there. Peak enrollment was reached in January 1943, when 825 youth were employed. Girls also were enrolled and did clerical and shop work. No discrimination was made in the selection of youth because of color, creed, politics, or national origin. Practically every nationality was represented in the resident group. There was no segregation of Negro workers in project work, although they had separate living quarters.
This resident center also served as a parent project for local work units in the surrounding neighborhoods, where transportation was feasible. By May 1943, the South Charleston project had served 12,000 youth from West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Kentucky, Indiana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia. [...] The boys and girls who came to the South Charleston resident project often had lived in remote rural areas where work and educational opportunities were limited. They learned trades and occupations which fitted them for better industrial employment, for the military services, and for earning their own livings in the future." (pp. 190-194)
Book highlights include an invitation to a Marine Corps dance signed by an H[ilary]. G. Stout, whom she would later marry ; a 6pp. mimeograph publication titled WELCOME, which includes detailed descriptions of the project grounds and two line drawn building maps ; a single mimeographed issue of THE ARMONIA (Vol. 1, No. 7 ; December 22, 1939), the project's official monthly magazine ; an original cafeteria menu ; about a dozen examples of humorous or poetic writings by project members ; internal project forms ; etc....
Overall a dense and well preserved primary record of one young West Virginia woman's time in the National Youth Administration.
[Women in New Deal Programs] : [National Youth Administration]. MY [LOCK]-6 "SCRAP" BOOK - [Cover Title -Original Scrapbook]. South Charleston, West Virginia: (1939-1940). Handmade scrapbook. Approximately 8 1/2" x 11." Plain tan paper wrappers with a colored pencil title illustration to front. 48 plain paper leaves with snapshot photographs (18 total), ephemeral scrap, article clippings, documents, etc... mounted to rectos only. A few blank documents bound in at rear and two mimeograph publications laid-in loose. Some mild handling wear inherent to vernacular production, else very good overall.