Record Groups 202 - 293

• Introduction
• Alphabetical List of Record Groups
• Numerical List of Record Groups
• Subject Index (A through Z)
• Record Groups 4 through 48
• Record Groups 52 through 96
• Record Groups 103 through 188
• Record Groups 202 through 293
• Record Groups 304 through Donated Materials

Record Group 202
Records of the National War Labor Board (World War II)

Administrative History
The National War Labor Board (NWLB) was established in the Office for Emergency Management (OEM) by an Executive order of January 12, 1942. It was to act as final arbiter of wartime labor disputes and to pass on adjustments in certain wages and salaries. An Executive order of September 19, 1945, transferred the NWLB to the Department of Labor. The NWLB was terminated by the Executive order of December 31, 1945, that established the National Wage Stabilization Board (NWSB) with all powers, functions, and responsibilities of the NWLB relating to stabilization of wages and salaries as well as limited functions relating to the settlement of disputes. The NWSB was terminated by an Executive order of December 12, 1946.

While the initial functioning of the NWLB was solely in Washington, DC, on October 29, 1942, the NWLB announced establishment of 10 regional advisory offices. The authority of these first regional offices was quite limited, but on January 21, 1943, the NWLB created two new regions, and converted the (now 12) regional advisory offices to regional war labor boards, with considerable independent authority in resolving disputes. The NWLB also created several special tripartite industry commissions and panels to deal with particular industries nationally. See RG 25, RG 155, and RG 211 for related records.

Records Description
Dates: 1942-47
Volume: 278 cubic feet

Records of Region 1: Office of the Regional Board and the Administrative, Management, Wage Stabilization, Legal, and Public Information divisions. The records relate to disputes, enforcement activities, wage controls, and wage rate surveys, and include board minutes, correspondence, dispute and enforcement case files, press releases, sample voluntary wage and salary adjustment case files, wage-rate survey schedules and related data.

Finding Aids
Entries 165-167, 173-174, 177-178, 380-383, and 462-463 in Estelle Rebec, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the National War Labor Board (World War II), PI 78 (1955).

Record Group 211
Records of the War Manpower Commission

Administrative History
The War Manpower Commission (WMC) was established within the Office for Emergency Management by an Executive order of April 18, 1942. Operating through regional and State WMC offices and local offices of the U.S. Employment Service, it recruited labor for the war effort and essential civilian industries, trained labor for essential jobs, analyzed manpower utilization practices to increase labor efficiency, and accumulated national labor market information. It was terminated by an Executive order of September 19, 1945, and its functions were transferred to the U.S. Employment Service. See RG 119, RG 202, and RG 228 for related records.

Records Description
Dates: 1942-45
Volume: 51 cubic feet

Records of the New England regional office documenting the economic condition of the area and its response to wartime programs and controls, the commissioner's employment stabilization program, the operations of local offices of the U.S. Employment Service, successful manpower utilization programs, and the work of regional and area directors, regional office staffs, and interagency conferences. Included are the central files containing correspondence, issuances, memorandums, organizational charts, and press releases. There are also appeal case files, case histories, minutes of meetings, monthly progress and activity reports, and surveys.

• Draft inventory.
• Entries 269-275, 277-279, 281, and 283-285 in Charles Zaid, comp., Inventory of the Records of the War Manpower Commission, NARS Inventory 6 (1973).

Restrictions
Access to some files or portions of documents may be restricted because of personal privacy concerns.

Record Group 227
Records of the Office of Scientific Research and Development

Administrative History
The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was created June 28, 1941, within the Office for Emergency Management to support research in scientific and medical problems relating to national defense. A center for the mobilization of scientific personnel and resources, the office coordinated, aided, and supplemented research activities of the War and Navy Departments and other Federal agencies. It entered into contracts and agreements with individuals, educational and scientific institutions (including the National Academy of Sciences and the National Research Council), industrial organizations, and other agencies for studies, experimental investigations, and reports. It was also given responsibility for similar contracts entered into by the National Defense Research Committee and the Health and Medical Committee, prior to June 1941, and by the Federal Security Administrator in his capacity as coordinator of health, medical, and related activities as authorized by the Council of National Defense. The OSRD was terminated December 31, 1947, and its business was transferred for completion to the National Military Establishment.

Records Description
Dates: 1940-46
Volume: 1,705 cubic feet

Records of laboratories at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which were under contract with the OSRD during World War II. Included are the Radiation Laboratory at MIT and the following laboratories at Harvard: Chemical Laboratory; Electro-Acoustic, Psycho-Acoustic and Systems Research Laboratories; Optical Research Laboratory; Radio Research Laboratory; Thermistor Studies and Infra-Red Research Laboratories; and the Underwater Sound Laboratory.

The records document research and development work on radar and other weapons systems by Allied scientists and engineers during World War II. Included are correspondence, indexes, interview and observation notes, invention reports, laboratory notebooks, manuals, memorandums, minutes of meetings, and reports.
Nontextual records include blueprints, charts, drawings, filmstrips, graphs, motion pictures, and photographs.

Records of Division 15, Cambridge, 1943-46. The records document jamming and other electronic countermeasures against radar, radio communications, and guided missiles. They are project files.

Records of the Division of War Research, Columbia University, 1942-45. The records document sonar and underwater acoustics research performed by laboratories at Fort Trumbull and New London, Connecticut, and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. They are manuals, memorandums, and reports.

• Partial draft inventory.
• Entries 122 and 123 in Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, NC 138 (1965).
• Annotated Bibliography of Underwater Acoustic Research, 1942-1945, Naval Underwater Systems Center Technical  Document 6893 (1983).

Record Group 228
Records of the Committee on Fair Employment Practice

The first CFEP utilized six field investigators and a few field clerical employees, and held public hearings in several major cities across the country. The second CFEP initially established nine regional offices and two suboffices, continuing and expanding the network of the first CFEP's field investigators; additional offices and suboffices were added later. See RG 211 for related records.

Records of Region I. The records are case files which document actions taken on discrimination complaints and usually include complaints, correspondence, and reports.

Finding Aids
Entries 68-70 in Charles Zaid, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Committee on Fair Employment Practice, PI 147 (1962).

Record Group 234
Records of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation

The RFC was organized as a Government business corporation, with a considerable degree of independence, but (unlike most Federal agencies) directly accountable to Congress. Under the law that created it, the RFC would have expired after 10 years (in 1942), but amendments extended its life several times. It eventually was abolished on June 30, 1957, after a rundown that had begun in 1953. Loan agencies were established in the field, usually in cities that had Federal Reserve banks.

Records of the Central Advisory Committee of the Boston Loan Agency. The records document actions taken on loan applications, and include memorandums and minutes of meetings.
 
Finding Aids
Entry 33 in Charles Zaid, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, 1932-1964, PI 173 (1973).

Record Group 237
Records of the Federal Aviation Administration

Administrative History
The Civil Aeronautics Act of June 23, 1938, established an  independent Civil Aeronautics Authority "to promote the development and safety and to provide for the regulation of civil aeronautics." In 1940, the authority was divided into a Civil Aeronautics Board with safety regulatory authority and a Civil Aeronautics Administration to enforce civil air regulations; aid in the development of a national airport system; and plan, construct, and operate the Federal Airways System. Both organizations were part of the Department of Commerce until the establishment in 1958 of the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) which assumed all of their functions. The FAA became a part of the Department of Transportation by an act of October 15, 1966, and was redesignated the Federal Aviation Administration.

Records of the Human Resource Management Division. The records are labor relation arbitration case files, relating to the 1980 strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), one of the first major labor problems of the Reagan presidency. The files include copies of individual grievances; notes and memorandums relating to their processing or investigation; correspondence; briefs, findings, and decisions; and arbitrators' reports.

Finding Aids
List of grievants.

Restrictions
Access to some files or portions of documents may be restricted because of personal privacy concerns.

Record Group 245
Records of the Solid Fuels Administration for War

Authorization of the division lapsed on August 23, 1943, and many of its functions, as well as its district offices, were transferred to the Solid Fuels Administration for War.

On November 4, 1941, a letter from the President to the Secretary of the Interior established the Office of Solid Fuels Coordinator for National Defense within the Department of the Interior. The name of the office was changed to the Office of Solid Fuels Coordinator for War on May 25, 1942. Under both names, the office was essentially a planning and advisory agency. Executive Order 9332 of April 1943 transformed the Office into the Solid Fuels Administration for War (SFAW). The SFAW had the legal authority, lacking in its predecessor, to implement an emergency distribution and controls program.

With the lapsing of authorization for the Bituminous Coal Division on August 23, 1943, the SFAW inherited its district office structure, staff, and records, renaming the district offices area distribution offices. As had been the case with the district offices of the Bituminous Coal Commissions and the Bituminous Coal Division, SFAW area offices were responsible for entire States or for certain counties within one or more States. The SFAW area offices were responsible for regulating distribution and sale, as well as production, of all varieties of coal.

Records Description
Dates: 1943-47
Volume: 52 cubic feet

Records of the field offices at Boston, Massachusetts; Concord, New Hampshire; New Haven, Connecticut; Portland, Maine; and Providence, Rhode Island. The records relate to regulating the distribution and sale of coal, compliance with regulations, consumer complaints, and the work of advisory councils, community committees, producers, retailers, and consumers. They consist of correspondence, reports, and surveys.

Finding Aids
Entries 63-68, 101, 157-159, 190-191, and 195 in Forrest R. Holdcamper, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Field Records of the Solid Fuels Administration for War: A Supplement to Preliminary Inventory 34, NC 145 (1966).

Record Group 252
Records of the Office of the Housing Expediter

Records Description
Dates: 1942-53
Volume: 120 cubic feet

Records of the Boston regional office. The records relate primarily to housing costs and rent control activities, and the work of the regional director, rent attorney, and information officer. There is a sample of rent enforcement case files and decontrol surveys. Included are audit reports and surveys, advisory board minutes, correspondence, and narrative and statistical reports.

Record Group 253
Records of the Petroleum Administration for War

Records Description
Dates: 1941-45
Volume: less than 1 cubic foot

Records of the Boston (Zone 1) office of the Distribution and Marketing Division (District 1) relating to office procedures, agency operations, conferences and committee meetings, and inter-office communication. The records are primarily correspondence.

Finding Aids
Entry 939 in Albert Whimpey and James R. Fuchs, comps., Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the Petroleum Administration for War, PI 31 (1951).

Record Group 269
General Records of the General Services Administration

Records of the Real Property Division and the Office of Regional Counsel. The records are real property case files, which document the disposal by sale or donation of Federal property such as former military installations, lighthouses, housing projects, post offices, and hospitals in New England. They include cost estimates, appraisal reports, bids, correspondence, deeds, memorandums, newspaper clippings, and reports of survey and title searches.
Nontextual records include maps, photographs, and plot plans.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory including list of sites.

Record Group 270
Records of the War Assets Administration

Records of the Office of Real Property. The records document disposal of real property, such as industrial and airport properties, including the reporting of property as excess, notification of availability, inspection and appraisal, and approval of disposition. They consist primarily of case files.
Nontextual records include maps, photographs, and plot plans.

Record Group 276
Records of the U.S. Courts of Appeals

Records Description
Dates: 1891-1978
Volume: 645 cubic feet

Records of the U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit, Boston. The records document appeals of cases heard by lower Federal courts in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, and Rhode Island. There are case files, 1891-1972, containing briefs, opinions, transcripts of records, mandates, and other papers, along with related docket books and indexes. A separate series of miscellaneous cases, 1952-72, with related docket books and indexes, pertains mostly to various petitions and motions for which no filing fee was paid.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Record Group 291
Records of the Federal Property Resources Service

Records of the Utilization and Disposal Service. The records relate to disposal of Federal property such as hospitals, housing projects, lighthouses, former military installations, and post offices in New England. Included are appraisal reports, bids, correspondence, cost estimates, declarations of excess and certifications of surplus, deeds, instruments of conveyance, newspaper clippings, and reports of survey and title searches. Nontextual records include maps, photographs, and plot plans.

Record Group 293
Records of the Wage and Salary Stabilization Boards of the Economic Stabilization Agency

Records of the Boston Regional Wage Stabilization Board. The records document activities and decisions of the Board and are minutes of meetings.