Guide to Federal Records

Records of the Tennessee Valley Authority [TVA]


(Record Group 142)
1917-94 (bulk 1933-86)
OVERVIEW OF RECORDS LOCATIONS

Table of Contents

  • 142.1 Administrative History
  • 142.2 General Records 1933-85
  • 142.3 Records of the Chairman and Members of the Board of Directors 1926-90
  • 142.4 Records of the Information Office 1933-83
  • 142.5 Records of the Office of Engineering Design and Construction and Predecessor Units 1922-92
    • 142.5.1 General records
    • 142.5.2 Records of the Engineering Reports and Information Staff
    • 142.5.3 Records of the Design Division
    • 142.5.4 Records of the Engineering Service Division
    • 142.5.5 Records of the Drafting Service Division
  • 142.6 Records of the Office of Agricultural and Chemical Development 1917-82
    • 142.6.1 General records
    • 142.6.2 Records of the Department of Agricultural Industries
    • 142.6.3 Records of the Cooperative Research and Experiment Branch
    • 142.6.4 Records of the Correlating Committee
    • 142.6.5 Records of the Commerce Department of TVA
    • 142.6.6 Records of the Division of Chemical Development and its predecessors
  • 142.7 Records of the Health and Safety Department and its Predecessors and Successors 1930-68
  • 142.8 Records of the Division of Property and Services and its Predecessors 1934-79
  • 142.9 Records of the Office of Natural Resources 1933-69
    • 142.9.1 Records of the Office of the Chief Conservation Engineer
    • 142.9.2 Records of the Division of Forestry, Fisheries, and Wildlife
    • 142.9.3 Records of the Forestry Relations Division, Forest Relations Department, and Forest Resources Planning Division
  • 142.10 Records of the Division of Navigational Development and Regional Studies and Predecessor Units 1933-68
    • 142.10.1 Records of the Social and Economic Division
    • 142.10.2 Records of the Land Planning and Housing Division
    • 142.10.3 Records of the Department of Regional Planning Studies
    • 142.10.4 Records of the Community Planning Division
  • 142.11 Records of the Office of Natural Resources and Economic Development and its Successors and Predecessors 1933-88
    • 142.11.1 Records of the Mapping Services Branch
  • 142.12 Records of the Office of Power 1955
  • 142.13 Records of the Division of Reservoir Properties 1937-79
  • 142.14 Records of the Resource Group 1941-94
  • 142.15 Cartographic Records (General) 1933-36
  • 142.16 Machine-Readable Records (General) 1986-90
  • 142.17 Still Pictures (General) 1918-70

Top of Page

142.1 Administrative History

Established: As a federal corporation by an act of May 18, 1933 (48 Stat. 58).

Functions: Administers a unified program of resource conservation, development, and use in the Tennessee River Valley. Encourages the economic development of the region.

Finding Aids: Preliminary inventory in National Archives microfiche edition of preliminary inventories.

Subject Access Terms: Ecology; flood control; natural resources; nuclear power.

Top of Page

142.2 General Records
1933-85

Textual Records (in Atlanta): General manager's file, documenting the daily activities of the chief administrative officer of TVA,1933-57. Activity authorizations, 1938-48. Project authorizations,1946-84. Master budget document file, 1933-78. Microfilm copy of central subject correspondence file, 1933-39 (704 rolls), with index, 1933-40 (796 rolls). Microfilm copy of administrative releases and announcements, 1933-79 (16 rolls). Correspondence of the Personnel Division, 1933-55. Correspondence of the Washington Liaison Office, 1933-82. Townlift Program records, 1963-83. Work stoppages and strikes records of the Labor Relations Staff, 1939-85.

Top of Page

142.3 Records of the Chairman and Members of the Board of
Directors
1926-90

Top of Page

142.3.1 Records of chairmen

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Correspondence and other records of Chairman A.E. Morgan, 1926-48 (45 ft. and 44 rolls of microfilm); and subject index to speeches, 1933-38. Correspondence and other records of Chairman A.E. Morgan; Director and Chairman H.A. Morgan; and Director Harry A. Curtis, 1933-57. General correspondence, 1933-43 (72 ft.), and correspondence with individuals, 1945-46; register of letters received, 1934-38; subject files, 1943-46; general reports, 1935-46; progress reports, 1935-38; and monthly financial statements, 1934-38, of Director and Chairman David E. Lilienthal. Correspondence and other records of Chairman Gordon R. Clapp and Chairman Herbert D. Vogel, 1946-57.

Photographs (in Atlanta): Collection of Chairman A.E. Morgan, documenting TVA projects, dam construction, personnel, and floods, taken by Lewis Hine and E.E. Newkom, 1936-38 (700 images).

Cartoons (in Atlanta): TVA conflicts and firing of Chairman Morgan, 1938 (51 items).

Top of Page

142.3.2 Records of directors

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Correspondence and other records of Directors James P. Pope and Raymond R. Paty, 1939-57; Directors Frank J. Welch, Brooks Hays, A.J. Wagner, and Frank E. Smith, 1957-72; Directors A.R. Jones and Don McBride, 1957-72; Director William L. Jenkins, 1972-78; Director Robert N. Clement, 1979-81; Director S. David Freeman, 1977-84; Director Richard M. Freeman, 1978-86; and Director Charles H. Dean, 1988-90.

Top of Page

142.4 Records of the Information Office
1933-83

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Correspondence, 1933-76. General correspondence of the Knoxville (TN) International Visitors Center, 1963-68.

Motion Pictures: The Story of the Tennessee Valley Authority and How It All Began at Muscle Shoals, documenting the early history of TVA, 1936-37 (5 reels). TVA, reviewing the history of the Tennessee Valley and illustrating the improvements brought about by TVA, 1940 (2 reels). Educational and promotional films depicting environmental issues, health and safety concerns, TVA history and objectives, and major TVA projects in areas of dam construction, power generation, flood control, and regional development, 1933-83 (196 reels).

Sound Recordings: Narration accompanying filmstrips described below, 1970 (2 items). Oral history interviews with TVA employees and Tennessee Valley residents, 1976-83 (69 items, in Atlanta).

Photographic Negatives: Indexed "Kodak Negative File" including facilities, agricultural projects, TVA dedications and celebrations, natural disasters, family homes, and family portraits, 1933-76 (531,000 images, in Atlanta).

Filmstrips: Educational and promotional filmstrips, "Food, Fertilizer, and TVA" and "A Quality Environment for the Tennessee Valley," 1970 (T, 2 items).

Top of Page

142.5 Records of the Office of Engineering Design and
Construction and Predecessor Units
1922-92

Top of Page

142.5.1 General records

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Subject files, 1933-1984. Correspondence of the chief engineer and the office manager, 1933-84. Records of Carl A. Bock, Assistant to Chief Engineer A.E. Morgan, 1933-39.

Photographic Negatives (in Atlanta): Construction progress on TVA dams, locks, power plants, nuclear plants, and other facilities, 1933-92 (98,732 images).

Top of Page

142.5.2 Records of the Engineering Reports and Information Staff

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Engineering project histories and reports, 1934-75 (315 ft.).

Top of Page

142.5.3 Records of the Design Division

Textual Records (in Atlanta): General and project correspondence and computational notebooks relating to the Lend-Lease Program to the Soviet Union, 1942-45.

Architectural and Engineering Plans (in Atlanta): Lend-Lease Program project blueprints, 1942-45 (1,397 items).

Top of Page

142.5.4 Records of the Engineering Service Division

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Wilson Dam central files, 1922-51, documenting its construction and operation by the Army Corps of Engineers and its subsequent transfer to and operation by TVA.

Maps: Published general maps of the Tennessee Valley, 1942 (2 items). Photoprocessed maps of Norris and Pickwick Landing Reservoirs, 1935 (2 items), and of land ownership of the Chickamauga Reservoir area, 1936 (2 items).

Photographic Negatives (in Atlanta): Wilson Dam construction glass plate progress negatives, 1922-25 (256 images). TVA dam construction panoramic negatives (Gilbertsville, Guntersville, Kentucky, Chickamauga, Pickwick, Wheeler, and Wilson Dams), 1937-48 (26 images).

Top of Page

142.5.5 Records of the Drafting Service Division

Maps: Published general maps of the Tennessee Valley showing TVA projects, 1942 (2 items).

Top of Page

142.6 Records of the Office of Agricultural and Chemical
Development
1917-82

Top of Page

142.6.1 General records

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Correspondence, reports, and other records relating to the commercial application of freezing technology to food, 1933-44. Reference file of Dr. Harry A. Curtis, Chief of Chemical Engineering, Fertilizer Works, 1933-59. Correspondence of the Phosphate Branch, 1947-76, the Division of Chemical Operations, 1948-68, the Columbia Division, 1935-76, and the Chemical Engineering Department.

Photographs (in Atlanta): Still picture files, 1917-60 (1,415 images).

Top of Page

142.6.2 Records of the Department of Agricultural Industries

Textual Records (in Atlanta): General correspondence, 1935-36. Reports, 1933-37. Records relating to agricultural and commercial products; equipment research and activities; and a subsistence homestead survey, 1933-35.

Top of Page

142.6.3 Records of the Cooperative Research and Experiment Branch

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Correspondence, 1934-39. Records relating to a survey of Farmers Cooperative Associations, 1938-39.

Top of Page

142.6.4 Records of the Correlating Committee

Textual Records (in Atlanta): General correspondence, 1938-52.

Top of Page

142.6.5 Records of the Commerce Department of TVA

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Central correspondence of J. Haden Alldredge and J.P. Ferris, Transportation and Industrial Economic Division, 1935-48. General correspondence of A.D. Spottswood, Chief Transportation and Industrial Economics Division, 1937-44. Central correspondence, 1943-48. General Correspondence, 1933-47. General correspondence of the Ceramics Research Laboratory Division, 1935-40.

Maps: Published Transportation-Economics Division maps of the Tennessee Valley showing transportation facilities in relation to areas that produced coal, iron, limestone, talc, cotton, and other products, ca. 1933 (17 items).

Top of Page

142.6.6 Records of the Division of Chemical Development and its
predecessors

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Formal technical ("R") reports, 1934-72; informal technical ("S") reports, 1936-72; monthly progress ("M") reports, 1945-66; and annual ("Z") reports, 1937-76; with index, 1933-82.

Top of Page

142.7 Records of the Health and Safety Department and its
Predecessors and Successors
1930-68

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Administrative and management records, and narrative progress reports, 1941-68. Malaria control program records, 1933-68. Mission correspondence of the Water Quality Branch, 1941-68.

Maps (in Atlanta): Vector control charts, maps reflecting pool levels at various elevations, land acquisition maps, drainage maps, stream sanitation survey maps, and mosquito control index maps, 1933-66 (1,750 items).

Lantern Slides (in Atlanta): Illustrations of measures TVA undertook to control malaria outbreaks, including helicopter and airplane sprayings of DDT, equipment used in developing sprays and aerosols, development of drugs for malaria patients, and the effect of certain chemicals on aquatic life, 1930-50 (1,876 images).

Top of Page

142.8 Records of the Division of Property and Services and its
Predecessors
1934-79

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Records relating to family and institution removal and readjustment, 1934-53. Correspondence of the Computing Center, Computing Services Branch, 1958-79.

Top of Page

142.9 Records of the Office of Natural Resources
1933-69

Top of Page

142.9.1 Records of the Office of the Chief Conservation Engineer

Textual Records (in Atlanta): General correspondence, 1937-51.

Top of Page

142.9.2 Records of the Division of Forestry, Fisheries, and
Wildlife

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Soil and erosion control project records, 1933-48.

Top of Page

142.9.3 Records of the Forestry Relations Division, Forest
Relations Department, and Forest Resources Planning Division

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Correspondence of the Forestry Relations Division, 1933-69. Erosion control project cards, 1933-40.

Maps: Forest Relations Department printed maps of the Tennessee Valley showing major forest patterns, 1939-41 (3 items); county maps showing forest types, 1940 (28 items); and map of the Appalachian Forest Experiment Station, 1940 (1 item). Forest Resources Planning Division map showing primary wood-using industries of the Tennessee Valley, 1939 (1 item).

Top of Page

142.10 Records of the Division of Navigational Development and
Regional Studies and Predecessor Units
1933-68

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Correspondence of the Manager of Reservoir and Community Relations, 1947-53. Correspondence of the General Manager of Government Relations and Economic Staff Files, 1953-57. Volume files of the Division of Navigation Development, 1954-67. Correspondence of the Local Flood Relations Committee, 1954-68. Correspondence of the Economic and Community Regional Studies Staff, 1958-68.

Top of Page

142.10.1 Records of the Social and Economic Division

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Studies, 1933-36.

Maps: Published maps illustrating the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the Tennessee Valley, including population density, health services, and income, 1937 (36 items).

Architectural and Engineering Plans (in Atlanta): Presentation drawings of TVA projects, including dams, reservoirs, office buildings, power plants, employee housing, and public buildings, 1934-49 (320 items).

Top of Page

142.10.2 Records of the Land Planning and Housing Division

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Records of the Recreation and Site Planning Staff relating to land preservation for recreational purposes, site planning, and defense housing, 1940-58.

Maps: Rural land classification survey, 1935-36 (328 items, in Atlanta). Highways and airfields in the southeastern United States, 1935-37 (3 items). Tennessee Valley, showing rural land classification, 1936 (1 item) and scenic recreational areas, 1937 (7 items). City plans of Norris, TN, 1934-35 (2 items). Atlas of the Tennessee River Valley, Part I, Natural Series, 1936 (12 items).

Aerial Photographs (in Atlanta): Cross-section survey of the Great Valley of East Tennessee, 1934-35 (36 items). Rural land classification survey, 1935-36 (260 items). Reservoir margin surveys, 1934-36 (38 items).

Photographs: Recreation and Conservation Section, Land Planning and Housing Division, showing buildings, housing, bridges, landscapes, and industries prior to the construction of hydroelectric power and reservoir facilities, and illustrating recreational development in the TVA areas, 1933-41 (RS, 1,963 images).

Subject Access Terms: Parks, national and state (photographs); forests (photographs); National Forests (photographs); rivers (photographs); lakes (photographs); animals, wild (photographs).

Top of Page

142.10.3 Records of the Department of Regional Planning Studies

Map: Published map of the Tennessee Valley showing retail trade areas, 1939 (1 item).

Top of Page

142.10.4 Records of the Community Planning Division

Maps: Appraisal atlas of the Tennessee Valley, relating to such factors as employment, land use, illiteracy, and extent of telephones and automobiles on farms, 1938 (23 items).

Top of Page

142.11 Records of the Office of Natural Resources and Economic Development and its Successors and Predecessors
1933-88

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Planning and budget correspondence files, 1933-88. Correspondence of the Environmental Quality Staff, 1969-78.

Top of Page

142.11.1 Records of the Mapping Services Branch

Maps: Published river navigation charts of the Tennessee Basin, 1942-52 (60 items). Published planimetric quadrangles, 1935-36 (500 items), and topographic quadrangles, 1938-55 (1,000 items), with index maps, 1939-41 (8 items). Published base maps of the Tennessee Valley, 1942-53 (4 items), and a plastic relief map, 1959 (1 item). Published maps showing status of mapping, 1943-57 (130 items), TVA project areas, 1941 (3 items), and proposed land exchanges between the TVA and the Forest Service, 1950 (1 item). Printed block plans of Norris, TN, 1939 (12 items). Photoprocessed maps of TVA project areas showing land sales and conveyance, 1955-56 (3 items); and land ownership of the Kentucky Reservoir, 1956 (2 items).

Aerial Photographs (45,000 items): Film negatives originally used for making maps of the Tennessee River watershed, with accompanying index maps (200 items), 1933-43.

Top of Page

142.12 Records of the Office of Power
1955

Map: Tennessee Valley area power facilities, published, 1955 (1 item).

Top of Page

142.13 Records of the Division of Reservoir Properties
1937-79

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Reports and correspondence, 1937-39.

Top of Page

142.14 Records of the Resource Group
1941-94

History: Resource Group was created during a major TVA reorganization in 1991. This was essentially a name change from the Resource Development organization that was put in place in 1988. Principal organizations formerly responsible for programs assumed by Resource Group were the Office of Agricultural and Chemical Development and the Office of natural Resources and Economic Development. Natural resources program areas included Water Resources and Land Between the Lakes activities.

Textual Records (in Atlanta): Land Between the Lakes correspondence and narrative reports, 1941-64; publications, 1963-94; magazine articles, speeches, and news releases, 1967-87; and cemetery records, 1964-94. Correspondence of the Office of Tributary Area Development, 1950-79. River Basin Operations Flood Ptotection correspondence, 1953-84; publications and articles, 1955-81; and local community flood relations reports, 1955-88. Correspondence of the Health Resource Development Staff, 1969-79. Correspondence of the Human Resource Development Staff, 1975-79.

Audio Recordings (in Atlanta): Oral interviews of former residents at Land Between the Lakes, 1976-79 (75 items).

Color slides (in Atlanta): Office of Tributary Area Development activities, 1961-79 (6,380 images).

Top of Page

142.15 Cartographic Records (General)
1933-36

Published maps of the southeast United States and the Tennessee Valley showing future dam and reservoir sites, the river navigation program, and the valley as a potential national defense center, 1933-36 (20 items).

Top of Page

142.16 Machine-Readable Records (General)
1986-90

Records and Information Management System (RIMS), 1986-90, with supporting documentation (5 data sets).

Top of Page

142.17 Still Pictures (General)
1918-70

Photographic Prints and Negatives: Forestry photograph file and index, illustrating general forestation, demonstration projects such as tree planting and seed collection, erosion control, and industries associated with timber production, 1930-70 (21,940 images, in Atlanta). TVA project survey photographs taken by Lewis Hine, including evacuations of families, construction of Norris Dam, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) activities, and examples of regional folk crafts and culture, 1933 (H, 191 images).

Photographic Negatives: Construction of and activities at nitrate plants at Muscle Shoals, AL, 1918-19 (MS, 293 images).

Lantern Slides: Illustrations for public presentations by TVA staff, including photograqphs of TVA sites before and after construction, flood control area photographs, and maps and charts of geological formations, 1933-63 (382 images).

Finding Aids: Caption list for series H; box and item list for series MS.

Related Records: Matching prints of the series MS negatives in RG 156, Records of the Office of the Chief of Ordnance, series MS. Additional photographs of CCC activities in RG 35, Records of the Civilian Conservation Corps.


Bibliographic note: Web version based on Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States. Compiled by Robert B. Matchette et al. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1995.
3 volumes, 2428 pages.

Ordering information

This Web version is updated from time to time to include records processed since 1995.


Top of Page

Guide to Federal Records >

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272