National Archives at Kansas City

Record Groups 101 through 196

Record Group 101
Records of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Administrative History
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was created as an integral part of the national banking system by an act of Congress of February 25, 1863. The comptroller, as the administrator of national banks, is responsible for the execution of laws relating to national banks and promulgates rules and regulations governing national banks in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. The Office of the Comptroller exercises general supervision over the operations of national banks, including trust activities and overseas operations. Each bank is examined periodically through a nationwide staff of bank examiners. These examinations operate in the public interest by assisting the comptroller in appraising the financial condition of banks.

Records Description
Dates: 1898-1962
Volume: 71 cubic foot

Records of the Examining Division in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Indian Territory, 1898-1899. The records document examinations of national banks and consist of reports. Records of the regional comptroller of the currency, Kansas City, Missouri, 1920-1962. The records document bank examinations, bad loans, compliance with Federal laws, illegal activity by bank officers, and trust accounts. They consist of abstracts, correspondence, and examiner's reports. Nontextual records include photographs.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Record Group 103
Records of the Farm Credit Administration

Administrative History
The Farm Credit Administration (FCA) was established March 27, 1933, as an independent agency to consolidate the functions of various Federal agencies concerned with agricultural credit. It established production credit corporations and created banks for cooperatives as a source of credit for farmers. From 1939 to 1953, the FCA was part of the Department of Agriculture but again became an independent agency thereafter. The Administration supervises and coordinates the activities of the Farm Credit System, a cooperative association of Federal land banks, intermediate credit banks, and other institutions financing farmers, ranchers, rural homeowners, owners of farm- related businesses, commercial fishermen, and of banks for cooperatives making loans of all kinds to agricultural and marine cooperatives. The System was created to provide dependable and adequate credit in response to the Great Depression and farm crisis of the 1930's.

Records Description
Dates: 1922-55
Volume: 16 cubic feet

Records of the Omaha and Wichita district offices, 1943-1955. The records relate to disposal of tracts of agricultural and forest land under the Surplus Property Act of 1944. (Federal land banks functioned as agents for the Farm Credit Administration in these proceedings.) The tracts sold were located on military installations (such as auxiliary airfields, ordnance plants, prisoner-of-war camps, proving grounds, radio range stations, and training camps) in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska. Included are appraisal reports, correspondence, lists of the legal descriptions of tracts and the names of their former owners, and title opinions. Nontextual records include photographs of buildings and plat maps. See RG 121 for related records.

Records of the Joint Stock Land Banks of St. Louis, Missouri, and Burlington, Iowa, 1922-1932. The records relate to liquidated joint stock land banks. They consist of the minutes of meetings of directors, executive committees, and stockholders.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Daniel T. Goggin, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Farm Credit Administration, NC 28 (1963).

Record Group 104
Records of the U.S. Mint

Administrative History
The Bureau of the Mint, established in the Department of the Treasury by an act of February 12, 1873, succeeded the Mint of the United States, founded in 1792 at Philadelphia, and continued there after the Federal Government moved to Washington, DC, in 1800. Originally an independent agency, by 1857 the Mint had become responsible to the Department of the Treasury. The Mint has been responsible for manufacturing coins; for receiving, storing, and selling gold and silver bullion; for assaying and refining; and for a variety of related functions, such as inspections and gathering statistics.

The Mint has operated mints in several cities, as well as assay offices and bullion depositories. The assay offices included one in St. Louis, Missouri.

Records Description
Dates: 1881-1910
Volume: less than 1 cubic foot

Records of the St. Louis Assay Office. The records relate to office financial affairs. They consist of a register of accounts and a register of expense warrants.

Finding Aids
Entry 506 in Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Bureau of the Mint, NC 152 (1958).

Record Group 112
Records of the Office of the Surgeon General (Army)

Administrative History
The Office of the Surgeon General was established by an act of April 14, 1818. The office is the headquarters of the Army Medical Department, whose mission is to maintain the health of the Army and conserve its fighting strength. Components of the Office include the Medical Corps, Dental Corps, Veterinary Corps, Medical Service Corps, Army Nurse Corps, and Army Medical Specialist Corps.

The field establishments maintained by the Office within the United States have included medical supply depots in Kansas City and in St. Louis, and Army Hospitals located at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley, Kansas.

Records Description
Dates: 1942-46
Volume: 4 cubic feet

Records of the Kansas City and St. Louis Medical Depots. The records relate to most aspects of the operation of the facilities. They consist of annual reports, conference files, facility control files, general orders, historical files, manuals, memorandums, and a history of the Kansas City Depot.

Records of the Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley Hospitals. The records relate to most aspects of the operation of the facilities, including the local work of the Red Cross. They consist of general orders, medical diaries, memorandums, planning files, Red Cross activity narratives, regulations, and reports.

Restrictions
Access to patients' clinical records is restricted because of personal privacy concerns.

Record Group 114
Records of the Natural Resources Conservation Service

Administrative History
The Soil Conservation Service was established in the Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1935, replacing the Soil Erosion Service which had been established in 1933, and acquiring duties from other Government agencies. In 1937, it began to provide technical and other assistance to farmers in soil conservation districts organized under State laws. In 1938, the SCS was given responsibility for farm forestry programs; in 1944 it was given responsibility for assisting in water conservation programs; and in 1952 it was authorized to assume the soil survey previously run by other USDA units. The SCS conducts soil and snow surveys, river basin surveys, and investigations and watershed activities; assists local groups in planning and developing land and water resources; and gives technical help to landowners and operators who participate in USDA's agricultural conservation, cropland conversion, and cropland adjustment programs.

In 1935, regional offices were established to supervise conservation work in large geographic areas, and in 1938-1939 area offices were created to assist the regional offices. State offices replaced area offices in 1942. Regional offices were discontinued in 1954, and the SCS now relies on State offices to give technical and administrative supervision to local units.

Records Description
Dates: 1923-67 (Records of most sites do not cover the entire date span.)
Volume: 249 cubic feet

Records of the Northern Great Plains Region (Region 7), Lincoln, Nebraska, including offices in Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The records relate to most aspects of the mission and administration of the regional office, and document such topics as agronomy, the Civilian Conservation Corps, project engineering and administration, range and wildlife conservation and management, and technical cooperation with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They consist of correspondence, fiscal records, project files, publicity files, reports, and subject files. Nontextual records include photographs.

Records of the Agricultural Experiment Station, Ames, Iowa. The records relate to drainage projects, experimental farm projects, terrace experiments, and watershed studies. They consist of budgets, correspondence, data tables, and project administration records. Nontextual records include maps and plats of experiments.

Records of the Missouri State Conservationist. The records document land use planning, the work of the Missouri Conservation Commission, and most aspects of the mission and administration of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camps in Missouri, often including descriptions of project areas. They consist of CCC project records and reports, cooperative agreements with landowners, correspondence, planning committee proceedings, planning reports, promotional material, and surveys. Nontextual records include photographs.

Records of the North Dakota State Office. The records relate to planning and constructing the Tongue River Watershed Project. They consist of project files including analyses of soil and moisture, and contracts. Nontextual records include engineering drawings and photographs.

Records of the Civilian Conservation Corp Camp, New Madrid, Missouri. The records relate primarily to drainage projects in New Madrid. These nontextual records include charts, maps, and photographs.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Record Group 118
Records of United States Attorneys

Administrative History
The Judiciary Act of September 24, 1789, made provision for U.S. attorneys and marshals who are appointed by the President and have functioned under the general supervision of the Department of Justice since its creation in 1870. U.S. attorneys investigate violations of Federal criminal laws, present evidence to grand juries, prosecute Federal criminal cases, and serve as the Federal Government's attorney in civil litigation in which the United States is involved or has an interest. U.S. marshals execute and serve writs, processes, and orders issued by U.S. courts, U.S. commissioners or magistrates, and commissions. They also notify the Department of Justice of defiance of Federal authority.

Records Description
Dates: 1873-1978
Volume: 360 cubic feet

Records of the following U.S. attorneys:

  • Iowa, Northern District. Precedent case files, 1942-68.
  • Iowa, Southern District. Precedent case files, 1949-68.
  • Kansas, District. Grand jury registers of indictments; dockets (Indian Territory), 1883-1892; correspondence, and service of jurors, 1951-66; dockets, 1871-1896; document registers, 1873; correspondence, 1873-1925 (containing letters associated with frontier personalities including "Bat" Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and the Dalton Gang); World War I alien registrations and permit applications, 1917-18; records of the Salina, Winnipeg and Gulf Railroad, 1908-12; and precedent case files 1917-76, including an investigation of "Birdman of Alcatraz" Robert Stroud.
  • Minnesota, District. Grand jury dockets, 1896-1922; minutes, 1898-1912; correspondence, 1874-1915 (including letters relating to naturalization matters); dockets and registers of actions, 1869-1920; precedent case files, 1899- 1951; and records of the Special Assistant Attorney General investigating Indian land fraud cases of the White Earth Chippewa, 1909-22.
  • Missouri, Eastern District. Correspondence, 1853-89; grand jury dockets and minutes, 1876-1932; and precedent case files, 1952-69.
  • Missouri, Western District. Transcripts of testimony before special investigating grand juries, 1939-40; records of cases, 1871-89; and precedent case files, 1942-71, including investigations of the Allen and Greenlease kidnappings.
  • Nebraska, District. Correspondence, 1905-49 (including letters relating to enemy alien registration and espionage, 1917-19); record of complaints, 1927-1948; and precedent case files, 1917-71.
  • North Dakota, District. Precedent case files, 1918-59, including cases involving the investigations of Katherine "Red Kate" Richards O'Hare and Governor William Langer.
  • South Dakota, District. Registers of complaints, 1896-1918; U.S. marshals' correspondence, 1893-1906; and precedent case files, 1948-53.
Records relate to bribery, civil rights, claims by Indian tribes, the status of restricted tribal land, conspiracy, draft evasion, fraud, internal revenue and firearms laws, and school desegregation. They generally include attorneys' work papers, copies of papers filed in Federal court (see RG 21 for the originals), correspondence with the Department of Justice and other Government agencies, investigative reports, newspaper clippings, and trial notes. Nontextual records include photographs and other exhibit material.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory for each district.

Related Microfilm Publications
M699, Letters Sent by the Department of Justice: General and Miscellaneous, 1818-1904; T577, Index to Names of U.S. Marshals, 1789-1960.

Restrictions
Access to some investigative case files may be restricted because of law enforcement needs or personal privacy concerns.

Record Group 119
Records of the National Youth Administration

Administrative History
The National Youth Administration (NYA) was established within the Works Progress (later Works Projects) Administration by an Executive order of June 26, 1935. In 1939, it was transferred to the new Federal Security Agency, and in 1942 was moved to the War Manpower Administration. By the end of 1944 it had been liquidated under authority of an act of July 12, 1943.

The NYA conducted two major employment-training programs for needy young people between the ages of 16 and 24. The agency was headed by an administrator, who determined basic policies with the assistance of an advisory committee appointed by the President. Operations in the field were directed by a network of regional, State, and area offices, assisted at each level by advisory committees. The regional office for Region VIII was located in St. Paul, with responsibility for activities in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Records Description
Dates: 1939-43
Volume: 2 cubic feet

Records of Regional Administrator Charles B. Lund, Region VIII. The records relate to most aspects of NYA regional activities. They consist of correspondence.

Finding Aids
Unpublished descriptive inventory.

Record Group 121
Records of the Public Buildings Service

Administrative History
Federal construction activities outside the District of Columbia were performed by individual agencies and, to some extent, by special commissions and officers appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury until 1853, when a Construction Branch was created in the Department of the Treasury. The Branch later became the Bureau of Construction in the Office of the Supervising Architect, and that office was transferred in 1933 to the Public Buildings Branch of the Procurement Division. The Public Buildings Administration was created in the Federal Works Agency in 1939 by consolidating the Public Buildings Branch and the National Park Service's Branch of Buildings Management. The latter branch had inherited responsibilities for Federal construction in the District of Columbia from the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capitol.

An act of June 30, 1949, abolished the Public Buildings Administration and transferred its functions to the newly established General Services Administration (GSA). The Public Buildings Service was established on December 11, 1949, by the Administrator of General Services to assume the functions once assigned to the Public Buildings Administration.

The Public Buildings Service designs, constructs, manages, maintains, and protects most Federally-owned and - leased buildings. The Service is also responsible for the acquisition, utilization, and custody of GSA real and related personal property.

Records Description
Dates: 1913-93
Volume: 520 cubic feet

Records of the Acquisition and Disposal Division, 1940-1973. The records relate to disposal of surplus real property, and document the sale or donation of Federal property (such as airfields, dams and reservoirs, forts and other military installations, Post Office buildings and sites, prisoner-of-war camps, and Veterans Administration hospitals) in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The records are case files, which generally include correspondence, deeds, narrative reports, and reports of survey and title search. Nontextual records include photographs and maps. See RG 103, RG 270, and RG 291 for related records.

Records of the Design and Construction Division. The records relate to the construction, repair, and improvement of Federal buildings, chiefly in Kansas City, Missouri; St. Louis, Missouri; Wichita, Kansas; and Des Moines, Iowa. They consist of project specifications and plans, including bonds, contracts, and correspondence. Nontextual records include drawings.

Finding Aid
Draft inventory including lists of the names and locations of property.

Record Group 127
Records of the U.S. Marine Corps

Administrative History
The U.S. Marine Corps was created by an act of July 11, 1798, which authorized the Commandant of the Corps to appoint an adjutant, a paymaster, and a quartermaster. Around those three staff officers and the Commandant the branches of Marine Corps Headquarters developed. Although the Corps was at first subject to both Army and Navy regulations, an act of June 30, 1834, placed it under exclusive Department of the Navy control, except for units detached by Presidential order for Army service. A staff system in the Headquarters organization was begun in 1918 when the first of many sections and divisions was created in the Office of the Commandant. When Headquarters was reorganized along General Staff lines in 1952, the Division of Plans and Policies was abolished and its sections, G-1 through G-4, were elevated to divisional status under assistant chiefs of staff.

The Commandant of the Marine Corps is directly responsible to the Secretary of the Navy for all administrative and operational matters affecting the Corps. These include providing amphibious forces for service with the fleet in seizing and defending advanced naval bases, and conducting land operations essential to a naval campaign. Other duties include providing detachments to serve on naval ships and to protect property of naval activities.

Records Description
Dates: 1968-1973
Volume: 1 cubic foot

Records of the Marine Corps Finance Center, Kansas City, Missouri. The records relate to routine operation of the center and are directives and staff manuals.

Finding Aids
Unpublished descriptive inventory.

Record Group 129
Records of the Bureau of Prisons

Administrative History
Responsibility for Federal prisoners was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the newly created Department of Justice by acts of June 22, 1870, and March 5, 1872. The Bureau of Prisons was established within the Justice Department by an act of May 14, 1930. The Bureau administers Federal penal and correctional institutions and exercises responsibility for Federal prisoners in non-Federal institutions.

The "Three Prisons Act" of March 3, 1891, provided for acquisition of sites for 3 prisons, the first of which was in Leavenworth, Kansas. The former military prison at the site was replaced by the present structure. Construction was authorized in 1896. All prisioners were transferred to the new facility by 1906.

Records Description
Dates: 1895-1982
Volume: 283 cubic feet

Records of the U.S. Penitentiary, Leavenworth, Kansas. The records document individual inmates. The are primarily case files, 1895-1920, but also include account books and ledgers, annual reports, correspondence, and journals. Nontextual records include photographs.

Finding Aids Draft inventory.

Inmate case file database with prisoner name index cross referenced to case file number.

Record Group 136
Records of the Agricultural Marketing Service

Administrative History
The Agricultural Marketing Service was established in the Department of Agriculture in 1939 to consolidate agricultural marketing and related activities such as collecting and interpreting agricultural statistics, performing market inspection and grading services, and establishing official grade standards for many farm products. Its predecessors included the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. The Service was discontinued in 1942 and its functions performed by other agencies. A new Agricultural Marketing Service was established in 1953 and was renamed the Consumer and Marketing Service between 1965 and 1972.

Records Description
Dates: 1887-1968 (Records of most offices do not cover the entire date span.)
Volume: 42 cubic feet

Records of marketing services and marketing research and statistics offices in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, and North Dakota, including: Federal Livestock Feed Agency; Livestock Division; Fruit and Grain Division; Grain Division; Crop and Livestock Division; State experimental stations and extension services; State statistical offices; field reporting stations. The records document most aspects of the mission and administration of the local offices, including complaint processing, and details of their regulatory, investigatory, and informational mission, as well as conditions and changes in meat and vegetable markets as released to the news media. They include annual reports; audits; inspection and grading certificates for various commodities; investigations; daily, weekly, and monthly market news reports; stockyard plans and appraisal files; and other regulatory records.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Virgil E. Baugh, Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Agricultural Marketing Service, NC 118 (1965).

Record Group 146
Records of the U.S. Civil Service Commission

Administrative History
The U.S. Civil Service Commission (CSC), created by an act of January 16, 1883, replaced the Civil Service Commission that had originated under an act of March 3, 1871, as the Advisory Board of the Civil Service. The Commission was authorized to establish a merit system under which selections for Government-service appointments would be based on the applicant's demonstrated relative fitness. Regional offices were established and, under the supervision of regional directors, supervised the branch offices and boards of examiners, disseminated civil-service information, arranged and held examinations, received and rated application and examination papers, furnished agencies with lists of eligible applicants to fill the positions in various offices, conducted investigations and performed other duties directly affecting the administration of personnel actions within the regions. Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 1979 created the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), effective January 1, 1979. OPM assumed many former CSC responsibilities.

Records Description
Dates: 1912-55
Volume: 10 cubic feet

Records of the 9th Civil Service District, headquartered in St. Louis, which supervised local offices in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and for a limited time, part of Illinois. These offices publicized Federal employment practices, supervised boards of examiners and received applications for employment. The records include briefs, bulletins, circulars, memorandums, minutes, and similar records relating specifically to the war emergency (World War II).

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Record Group 147
Records of the Selective Service System

Administrative History
An Executive order of September 23, 1940, established the Selective Service System to provide an orderly, just, and democratic method of obtaining men for military and naval service. Except between December 5, 1942, and December 5, 1943, when it was placed under the jurisdiction of the War Manpower Commissioner, the System was responsible to the President.

The System operated through a director and national headquarters, regional boards, State headquarters, medical and registrant advisory boards, boards of appeal, and local boards. There was a local board for each county, and one for each unit of 30,000 people in urban areas. Through the local boards the System registered, classified, and selected for induction male citizens and aliens subject to service.

Records Description
Dates: 1942-46
Volume: 313 cubic feet

Records of local boards in Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The records relate to the individuals registering with or applying for conscription relief from their local boards. They consist of registration cards of men born between 1877 and 1897, personal history statements, and applications for relief of aliens from conscription.

Finding Aids
Entry 73 in Richard G. Wood, comp. Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Selective Service System, 1940-1947, PI 27 (1951).

Record Group 154
Records of the War Finance Corporation

Administrative History
The War Finance Corporation was created by an act of April 5, 1918, to give financial support to industries essential to the war effort and to banking institutions that aided such industries. After the armistice in 1918, the Corporation assisted in the transition to peacetime by financing railroads under Government control, and making loans to American exporters and agricultural cooperative marketing associations. The Corporation established agricultural loan agencies in farming areas, and cooperated with several livestock loan companies. Among the regional agricultural loan agencies was the Omaha Agency. The Corporation was abolished on July 1, 1939.

Records Description
Dates: 1921-27
Volume: 3 cubic feet

Records of the Omaha Agency, Nebraska. The records relate to most aspects of the operations of the Agency, including meetings of the executive committee. They consist of applications for advances, guarantee statements, and minutes of meetings.

Finding Aids
Series title inventory.

Record Group 155
Records of the Wage and Hour Division

Administrative History
The Public Contracts Division was created to administer the Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of June 30, 1936, which required Government supply contracts exceeding $10,000 to stipulate minimum wage, overtime pay, safety, and health standards. The Wage and Hour Division was established in the Department of Labor to administer the minimum wage, overtime compensation, equal pay, and child labor standards provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of June 25, 1938. The two divisions were consolidated in 1942, and their area of responsibility was expanded by subsequent legislation.

Records Description
Dates: 1956-65
Volume: 17 cubic feet

Records of the Kansas City regional office, which cover Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The records relate to claims for payment of back wages. They are primarily closed investigative case files, which include correspondence, exhibits such as payroll and accounting records, investigation reports, and transcripts of investigative interviews with claimants.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Record Group 156
Records of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance

Administrative History
The Ordnance Department was established as an independent bureau of the Department of War by an act of May 14, 1812. It was responsible for the procurement and distribution of ordnance and equipment, the maintenance and repair of equipment, and the development and testing of new types of ordnance. The Department was abolished in 1962, and its functions were transferred to the U.S. Army Material Command.

Among the field establishments maintained by the Ordnance Department within the United States have been armories, arsenals, and ordnance depots, district offices, and plants.

Records Description
Dates: 1940-62
Volume: 18 cubic feet

Records of the following ordnance districts:
  • Chicago;
  • Chicago;
  • New York;
  • Philadelphia;
  • Rochester
  • St. Louis
  • .
The records relate to military weapons development and other contracts, fraud, inspections and investigations, and mobilization plans. They consist of administrative orders, audits, contracts, reports, and a subject file.

Records of the following installations:

  • Cornhusker Ordnance Plant, Grand Island, Nebraska;
  • Des Moines Ordnance Plant, Iowa;
  • Fort Crook Ordnance Depot, Nebraska;
  • Iowa Ordnance Plant, Burlington, Iowa;
  • Jayhawk Ordnance Plant, Baxter Springs, Kansas;
  • Kansas Ordnance Plant, Parsons, Kansas;
  • Lake City Arsenal, Independence, Missouri;
  • Nebraska Ordnance Plant, Wahoo, Nebraska;
  • St. Louis Ordnance Depot, Missouri;
  • St. Louis Ordnance Plant, Missouri;
  • Sioux Ordnance Depot, Sidney, Nebraska.
The records relate to most aspects of the facilities' operations. They consist of subject files, including contracts, historical reports, inspection files, memorandums, and orders. Nontextual records include photographs.

Finding Aids
List of folder titles.

Record Group 158
Records of the Capital Issues Committee

Administrative History
A Capital Issues Committee was created within the Federal Reserve Board in January 1918; in May, it was replaced by a new Capital Issues Committee, an independent agency under authority of the War Finance Corporation Act of April 5, 1918. The two committees were created to determine whether proposed issues of securities were in the national interest, and to discourage the diversion of capital to unessential projects. The Committee suspended its activities at the end of 1918, and a Presidential proclamation of August 30, 1919, directed it to terminate its affairs.

Much of the work of the Committee was handled by the subcommittees (or district committees) that were established in each Federal Reserve district, including Kansas City and St. Louis.

Records Description
Dates: 1918
Volume: less than 1 cubic foot

Records of the Kansas City and St. Louis district committees. The records relate to applications by organizations proposing capital issues and the recommendations of the committees in each case. They consist of committee meeting minutes.

Finding Aids
Entries 31 and 35 in Norwood N. Biggs and William F. Sherman, comps., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Capital Issues Committee, NC 85 (1964).

Record Group 163
Records of the Selective Service System (World War I)

Administrative History
The Selective Service System, under the direction of the Office of the Provost Marshal General, was authorized by an act of May 18, 1917, to register and induct men into military service. Much of the management of the draft was left to the States, where local draft boards were established on the basis of one for every 30,000 people. These boards, appointed by the President on the recommendation of the State Governor, registered, classified, inducted, and delivered to mobilization camps men who were eligible for the draft. Legal and medical advisory boards assisted the local boards and registrants, and district boards were established to pass on occupational exemption claims and to hear appeals. The Provost Marshal General's Office worked with local and district boards through Selective Service State Headquarters. Classification ceased shortly after the armistice in 1918, and by May 31, 1919, all Selective Service organizations were closed except the Office of the Provost Marshal General, which was abolished July 15, 1919.

Records Description
Dates: 1917-19
Volume: 56 cubic feet

Records of local boards in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. The records are: docket books containing an individual's name, county of residence, and dates of actions taken such as notification, appearance, exemption, and report to camp; some contain home address, marital status, number of dependents, citizenship, and remarks pertaining to discharge or alien status; lists of names of men ordered to report for induction; indexes of names of deserters from Kansas; final lists of names of delinquents and deserters from Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Record Group 180
Records of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Administrative History
The Commodity Exchange Administration was established in the Department of Agriculture by a Secretary's memorandum, effective July 1, 1936, under the Commodities Exchange Act of June 15, 1936. It succeeded the Grain Futures Administration, created to enforce the Grain Futures Act of 1922, but its jurisdiction was extended to cover dealings in additional commodities. By an Executive order of February 23, 1942, the Commodity Exchange Administration was merged with other agencies to form the Agricultural Marketing Administration. On February 1, 1947, the Commodity Exchange Authority (CEA) was established as an agency of the Department of Agriculture. In 1974, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission succeeded the Commodity Exchange Authority with broad new regulatory powers. The major functions of the CEA were to maintain fair and competitive pricing, and otherwise regulate agricultural commodity markets under the Commodities Exchange Act.

The regional offices carried out the overall mission of the Authority within the markets assigned to them by the CEA Administrator. Each regional office was also assigned audit territories comprised of several States. Among the regional offices was the one in Kansas City, which regulated Merchants' Exchange of St. Louis and the Kansas City Board of Trade. The Kansas City office was, at various times, also responsible for audits in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming.

Records Description
Dates: 1960-70
Volume: 1 cubic foot

Records of the Kansas City Regional Office. The records relate to amendments and regulations of the Commodities Exchange Act, and to regional offices outside the Kansas City Region. They consist of contract market designation files.

Finding Aids
Unpublished descriptive inventory.

Record Group 181
Records of Naval Districts and Shore Establishments

Administrative History
Soon after its establishment in 1798, the Department of the Navy created navy yards and other fleet service shore establishments. A system of naval districts for the United States, its territories, and possessions was not formally established, however, until 1903. This system was supervised by the Bureau of Navigation until 1915 when it became the responsibility of the Chief of Naval Operations. By the end of World War II, the districts exercised almost complete military and administrative control over naval operations within their limits, including naval shipyards, stations, training stations, air installations, and advance bases.

Records Description
Dates: 1952-62
Volume: 7 cubic feet

Records of U.S. Naval Air Stations in Olathe, Kansas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota; and the Naval Reserve Training Command, Omaha, Nebraska, 9th (Omaha) Naval District. The records document administration and general operations of the districts. Most of the records are station journals, notices and instructions, and aircraft accident and crash reports. Nontextual records include photographs.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Records of Naval Districts and Shore Establishments in the Regional Archives Part of Record Group 181, SL 58 (1991).

Related Microfilm Publications
M89, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy From Commanding Officers of Squadrons, 1841-1886.

Restrictions
Access to some files or portions of documents may be restricted because of national security classification.

Record Group 183
Records of the Bureau of Employment Security

Administrative History
The Bureau of Employment Security was preceded by the Division of Information, created in 1907 in the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization of the Department of Commerce and Labor. On January 3, 1918, this division, which had become a general placement agency in the Labor Department's Immigration Service, was made a separate administrative unit under the name U.S. Employment Service (USES). An act of June 6, 1933, reorganized USES as a bureau to administer the public employment service provisions of the Wagner-Peyser Act.

On July 1, 1939, USES and the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation of the Social Security Board were merged to become the Bureau of Employment Security of the Social Security Board. Following several wartime and postwar reorganizations, the Bureau was transferred to the Labor Department on August 20, 1949. It was abolished on March 17, 1969, and its functions divided between the U.S. Training and Employment Service and the Unemployment Insurance Service.

After the United States entered the First World War in 1917, regional offices were used to locate labor for industry and agriculture. Following the armistice of November 11, 1918, the regional and State offices turned their attention to finding jobs for returning veterans.

Records Description
Dates: 1918-19
Volume: 16 cubic feet

Records of the Federal State Director of the U.S. Employment Service, Omaha, and records of local offices in Nebraska responsible to the Federal State Director. The records relate to office administration, employment in defense-related industries and agriculture, and employment of returning veterans. They consist of correspondence, completed financial forms, and reports.

Record Group 187
Records of the National Resources Planning Board

Administrative History
The National Resources Planning Board (NRPB) was established in the Executive Office of the President by Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1939. The Board inherited the functions of the National Planning Board (NPB) of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (created July 20, 1933) and its various successors. The NRPB and its predecessors planned public works, coordinated Federal planning relating to conservation and efficient use of national resources, and encouraged local, State, and regional planning. The NRPB was abolished by an act of June 26, 1943.

In 1934, the NPB began using the regional advisors and State advisory boards of the Public Works Administration for field contacts with State and local governments. On March 1, 1934, the NPB began developing a field organization of its own, establishing 12 Planning Districts throughout the country. The number of districts was subsequently reduced to 11. On May 13, 1937, the 11 planning district offices became nine regional offices. (Two additional regions were subsequently added for Alaska and the Caribbean territories.) The NRPB was liquidated in 1943.

The regional offices primarily acted as clearinghouses of planning information, carried out the Board's activities in the field, and coordinated regional, State, and local natural resource planning activities.

Among the regional offices was Region 6 (Missouri Valley Region), which, at its creation in 1937, inherited portions of Planning Districts 7, 8, and 9 of the NPB. Region 6 was responsible for Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. In August 1942, Iowa and Minnesota were transferred to Region 9. The field office of Region 6 was located in Omaha, Nebraska although the Regional Chairman was stationed at Ames, Iowa, part of the time.

Records Description
Dates: 1936-43
Volume: 26 cubic feet

Records of Region 6. The records relate to most aspects of planning and administration at the regional office. They consist of administrative records, correspondence, and technical planning records.

Finding Aids
Entries 32 and 33 in Virgil E. Baugh, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Regional Offices of the National Resources Planning Board, PI 64 (1954).

Record Group 196
Records of the Public Housing Administration

Administrative History
The Federal Public Housing Authority (FPHA) was established in 1942 as part of the National Housing Agency. It acquired functions relating to public housing that had formerly been performed by the Federal Works Agency, the War and Navy Departments, and the Farm Security Administration. The FPHA provided housing for war workers in localities where impending or existing shortages would hinder war activities. As World War II continued, the FPHA's development activities decreased and its management and disposition functions became more important. In 1947, the FPHA became the Public Housing Administration (PHA) under the Housing and Home Finance Agency (see RG 207). In 1965, it was abolished and its functions transferred to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The FPHA and the PHA operated regional offices to oversee Federally administered public housing programs, and to aid local public housing agencies with low rent housing and slum clearance projects. Missouri was initially part of PHA Area C, and subsequently was part of PHA Region V. After absorption of the PHA by HUD in 1965, Missouri continued in HUD Region V, with headquarters in Fort Worth. Missouri was subsequently assigned to HUD Region VII (with headquarters in Kansas City); Region VII was itself divided into area offices, with an area office for eastern Missouri located in St. Louis.

Records Description
Dates: 1951-76
Volume: 5 cubic feet

Records of the Pruitt-Igoe Public Housing Projects, St. Louis. The records relate to the construction, management, modernization, and demolition of the projects, including the highly charged political debates that punctuated the declining years of Pruitt-Igoe. They consist of contracts, correspondence files, memorandums, reports, specifications, and urban planning publications; some files include correspondence with significant local political figures, as well as with residents of the projects and nearby neighborhoods. Nontextual records include drawings and plans.

Finding Aids
Unpublished descriptive inventory.


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