Guide to Federal Records

Records of the Economic Development Administration [EDA]

(Record Group 378)
1951-81 (bulk 1961-81)

OVERVIEW OF RECORDS LOCATIONS

Table of Contents

  • 378.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
  • 378.2 RECORDS OF THE AREA REDEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION (ARA) 1951-67 (bulk 1961-65)
  • 378.3 RECORDS OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION (EDA) 1962-80
  • 378.3.1 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
  • 378.3.2 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR POLICY COORDINATION
  • 378.3.3 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING
  • 378.3.4 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS
  • 378.3.5 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION
  • 378.3.6 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL
  • 378.3.7 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
  • 378.4 RECORDS OF EDA REGIONAL OFFICES 1963-78
  • 378.4.1 Records of the Southwest Region (Austin, TX)
  • 378.4.2 Records of the Western Region (Seattle, WA)
  • 378.5 MOTION PICTURES (GENERAL)
  • 378.6 VIDEO RECORDINGS (GENERAL) 1979 1 item
  • 378.7 SOUND RECORDINGS (GENERAL) 1974-80 28 items
  • 378.8 STILL PICTURES (GENERAL) 1963-81 28,842 images

378.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY

Established: In the Department of Commerce by Secretary's Order 4-A, September 1, 1965, pursuant to the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 (79 Stat. 569), August 26, 1965.

Predecessor Agencies:

In the Department of Commerce:

Area Redevelopment Administration (1961-65)

Functions: Generates new jobs, protects existing jobs, and stimulates commercial and industrial growth in economically distressed areas of the United States through public works grants, loan guarantees, technical assistance programs, planning grants, and special economic adjustment assistance.

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

Related Records: Record copies of publications of the Economic Development Administration in RG 287, Publications of the U.S. Government.

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378.2 RECORDS OF THE AREA REDEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION (ARA)
1951-67 (bulk 1961-65)

History: Established in the Department of Commerce by Departmental Order 171, May 8, 1961, under authority of the Area Redevelopment Act (75 Stat. 47), May 1, 1961. Administered departmental responsibilities under the act, including programs of loans and grants to designated "redevelopment areas" for industrial, commercial, and public facilities. Abolished, effective August 31, 1965, by an act of June 30, 1965 (79 Stat. 195). Superseded by EDA, 1965. SEE 378.1.

Textual Records: Subject files, reading files, and mixed administrative and program files of Administrator William L. Batt, Jr., 1961-65. Records of the Office of the Deputy Administrator including correspondence files, 1961-65; and general subject files, 1962-65. Records of the Office of Planning and Research including subject files, 1963-65; administrative and program files, 1963-64; committee files, 1961-65; field surveys and reports, 1963-65; and records relating to the Overall Economic Development Program (OEDP), 1961-65. Project files of the Economic Analysis Division, Office of Planning and Research, 1961-65. Records of the Program Assistance Division, Office of Planning and Research, including subject files, 1951-63; reading files, 1956-62; and records relating to tourism development, 1961-63. Subject files of the Technical Projects Division, Office of Planning and Research, 1962-64. Records of the Office of Public Works Acceleration, including general records, 1962-65; subject and program files, 1961-63; and records relating to the OEDP, 1964-66. Records of the Office of Operations including general records 1961-65; subject files of the Business Opportunity and Development Service, 1965; and program files, proposals, and other records relating to area development within the northwest, 1963-65. Publications jackets, 1961-65. Publications, reports, papers, and other records relating to economic development, including publications of the Office of Area Development, Business and Defense Services Administration, and ARA, 1953-67.

Related Records: Additional records of the Office of Area Development, Business and Defense Services Administration in RG 389, Records of the International Trade Administration.

Motion Pictures (13 reels): Public information films produced by the ARA, consisting of Jobs for America, 1962 (1 reel); Discussion of the ARA Act, ca. 1962 (1 reel); A Rising Tide, 1964 (7 reels); and The Hinton Story, documenting development in Hinton, WV, 1964 (1 reel). American Broadcasting Company documentaries The Awesome Servant, 1961 (1 reel), and Howard K. Smith Reports on Poverty, 1963 (1 reel). When I'm Old Enough...Goodbye, produced by Louis de Rochemont Associates for the New York State Employment Service and dramatizing the story of a boy who quits school to get a job, 1962 (1 reel). SEE ALSO 378.4.

Video Recordings (1 item): All America Wants to Know: Automation, Are Strikes the Only Answer?, produced by Readers Digest and the Freedom Foundation, 1963. SEE ALSO 378.5.

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378.3 RECORDS OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION (EDA) 1962-80

378.3.1 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Textual Records: Subject and chronological files of Assistant Secretary Benjamin Chinitz, 1965-66. Records of Special Assistant Percy Williams, 1965-67. Correspondence and subject files of Assistant Administrator for Field Operations Thomas F. Shea, 1962-68.

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378.3.2 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR POLICY COORDINATION

Textual Records: Program files, 1965-72. General subject files, 1966-68. Records relating to the Model Cities program, 1968-72. Records of the Office of Policy Coordination including records relating to Mexican-American affairs, 1968-69; and records relating to the Southern Oklahoma Development Administration demonstration project, 1971-72.

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378.3.3 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLANNING

Textual Records: Subject files, 1961-69. Records relating to research and contracts, 1966-67. Records of the Office of Economic Research including general records relating to development assistance programs, 1960-68; and studies and reports, 1965-70.

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378.3.4 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OPERATIONS

Textual Records: Subject files, 1967-69. General administrative files of the Office of Business Development, 1968-71. Records of the Technical Assistance Division, Office of Technical Assistance, including subject files, 1966-68; and records relating to assistance feasibility studies, 1962-66. Project files of the Office of Public Works, 1965-68.

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378.3.5 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION

Textual Records: Records of the Office of the Executive Secretariat including subject files, 1965-69; correspondence control cards, 1966-67; and records relating to committees and boards, 1965-67.

378.3.6 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF CHIEF COUNSEL

Textual Records: Subject files, 1971-73.

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378.3.7 RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Textual Records: Newsletters and bulletins, 1967-72.

Motion Pictures: Public information films produced by EDA, consisting of An Original American Vacation, n.d. (1 reel); a film documenting the opening of the Wilkes-Barre, PA, Regional Office, 1966 (1 reel); and a film documenting the designation of the Upper Great Lakes Region, 1966 (1 reel). Films acquired by the EDA, consisting of A Concert of Effort, 1976 (1 reel); Project: Lummi Farm the Sea, n.d. (1 reel); and The Eastern Cherokee Today, 1976 (1 reel).

Video Recordings: Adirondack Railway, a public information video produced by EDA, 1979.

Sound Recordings: National Alliance of Development Organizations conferences; press conference explaining President Carter's proposed Labor Intensive Public Works Act; interview with Homer Davis, Deputy Director, EDA Office of Civil Rights; audio segments of slide-tape presentations; and television news, interview, and public affairs programs relating to the EDA and its programs, 1977-80 (15 items). Indian economic development, 1974 (13 items).

378.4 RECORDS OF EDA REGIONAL OFFICES
1963-78

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378.4.1 Records of the Southwest Region (Austin, TX)

Textual Records (in Fort Worth): Approved public works project case files of the Construction Management Division, 1963-74.

378.4.2 Records of the Western Region (Seattle, WA)

Textual Records (in Anchorage): Drought program case files, 1978 (in Seattle). Records of the Alaska Purchase Centennial Commission, consisting of organization files and project case files, 1965-71 (in Anchorage).

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378.5 MOTION PICTURES (GENERAL)

SEE UNDER 378.2 and 378.3.7.

378.6 VIDEO RECORDINGS (GENERAL)

SEE UNDER 378.2 and 378.3.7.

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378.7 SOUND RECORDINGS (GENERAL)

SEE UNDER 378.2 and 378.3.7.

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378.8 STILL PICTURES (GENERAL)
1963-81
28,842 images

Photographs (14,940 images): EDA projects, United States and Puerto Rico, 1965-78 (PR, 10,000 images). EDA projects, selected for publication, 1970-80 (PP, 4,940 images).

Photographs and Color Slides (1,362 images): Activities of the Upper Great Lakes Regional Commissions, 1975-80 (GL).

Photographic Prints (4,500 images): EDA projects, United States and Puerto Rico, 1965-71 (PS).

Photographic Prints and Negatives (1,660 images): Portraits and proofs of EDA personnel; members of the National Public Advisory Committee on Regional and Economic Development; and Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, Secretaries of Commerce Juanita M. Kreps and Philip Klutznick, and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, 1970-80 (PER).

Color Slides (6,380 images): EDA projects, United States and Puerto Rico, 1963-81 (M, 5,680 images). EDA Indian economic development projects, 1974 (PI, 700 images).

Finding Aids: Card index and log book to series M, 1963-81.


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.


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