Record Group 305 through Donated Materials

• Introduction,
• Alphabetical List of Record Groups
• Numerical List of Record Groups
• Record Groups 4 through 49
• Record Groups 56 through 96
• Record Groups 103 through 188
• Record Groups 202 through 293
• Record Groups 305 through Donated Materials

Record Group 305
Records of the Bonneville Power Administration

Administrative History
The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) manages the distribution and sale of hydroelectricity generated by dams along the Columbia River and its tributaries. Roughly modeled after the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville Project was created by Congress on August 20, 1937. Unlike TVA, where power was sold at the point of generation, conditions in the Pacific Northwest had forced the Federal Government to begin building transmission lines and devise a marketing plan for the vast amount of excess power that would be generated by the two great dams (Bonneville and Grand Coulee) then under construction. In January 1940, the Bonneville Project was renamed the Bonneville Power Administration. The agency participates in a cooperative effort with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates and often constructs the generation plants; the Federal Power Commission; and the BPA Administrator, whose functions include building and operating transmission lines, selling and exchanging power, negotiating price contracts, and preparing rate schedules.

Records Description
Dates: 1937-72
Volume: 1019 cubic feet
Records of the Administration. The records relate to Congressional hearings and legislation; an historical study of BPA, ca. 1947; hydrologic studies; litigation; power rates, billings, and rate histories; natural disasters, the operation of substations, transmission lines, and public and private utilities in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington; the organization and reorganization of the BPA; public relations and relations with the various advisory committees; rate studies; security and civil defense; and submarine cables. The records are the Administrator's reading file, annual reports, central classified subject files, financial and operating summaries, miscellaneous organizational charts, press releases, program correspondence files, and work papers.

Related Records
Six sound recordings held by the Motion Picture, Sound and Video Branch of the National Archives, Washington, DC, contain 12 songs written and performed by folk singer Woody Guthrie in May 1941, when he was a temporary employee of the Bonneville Power Administration. The songs tell the story of the Columbia River Basin and the development of hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest.

Finding Aids
Box contents list.

Record Group 309
Records of the Small Business Administration

Administrative History
The Small Business Administration (SBA), an independent agency, was established by the Small Business Act of July 30, 1953. The functions of the SBA, which were expanded by subsequent legislation and various Executive orders, are to counsel, assist, and protect the interests of small businesses; ensure that a fair proportion of Government purchases and contracts are placed with small businesses; make loans to small businesses and investment companies, victims of floods or other catastrophes, and State and local development companies; license and regulate small business investment companies; and assist small business owners in improving managerial skills.

Records Description
Dates: 1966-72
Volume: 1 cubic foot
Records of the Boise office. The records document advisory council activities, and consist of correspondence and minutes.

Finding Aids
Box contents list.

Record Group 310
Records of the Agricultural Research Service

Administrative History
The Agricultural Research Administration was established in the Department of Agriculture by an Executive order of February 23, 1942, to coordinate the activities of several scientific bureaus. It was consolidated with these bureaus on November 2, 1953, to form the Agricultural Research Service, which plans, administers, and conducts research and related regulatory programs.

Records Description
Dates: 1906-46, 1961-71
Volume: 24 cubic feet
Records of the Northwest Watershed Research Center, Moscow, Idaho, including precipitation and runoff studies and work projects in California; gauging stations in Nevada, and near Newberg, Oregon, and Moscow, Idaho; and the Oregon Watershed Project. They document rain gauge calibrations; rainfall runoff intensity; soil data; and water temperatures. Included are charts, field notes, and reports. Nontextual records include watershed contour maps.

Records of the area director, Western Region. The records relate to the Gardner and Beckman watershed study done in the vicinity of Emmett, Idaho, 1938-43. The records document land use; precipitation; water and soil temperatures; and water storage. Included are charts, field notes, summaries, surveys, and work plans.

Finding Aids
List of folder titles.

Record Group 315
Records of Interagency Committees and Councils Coordinating Water Use Programs

Administrative History
The Federal Interagency River Basin Committee was created by an agreement of December 29, 1943, between the Federal Power Commission and the Interior, War, and Agriculture Departments. Membership was later extended to the Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Health, Education and Welfare. Committee objectives were the exchange of information on activities involving water use and control, cooperation in the preparation of reports on multiple-purpose projects, and correlation of project results. The Committee also coordinated interagency projects and programs. The 1943 agreement was its sole charter, and it remained a voluntary unit. In 1954 the President abolished the Committee and created as its successor the Interagency Committee on Water Resources.

Records Description
Dates: 1967-81
Volume: 26 cubic feet
Records of the Pacific Northwest River Basin Commission. The records document interagency programs and projects relating to water use, and consist of general and administrative correspondence, minutes of meetings, and studies.

Record Group 319
Records of the Army Staff

Administrative History
The Army Staff, dating from 1947, is the military staff of the Secretary of the Army and includes the Chief of Staff and his immediate assistants, the Army General Staff, the Special Staff, and the Administrative and Technical Staffs. Its duties include preparing plans, investigating and reporting on Army efficiency and readiness, and preparing instructions for and supervising Army operations.

Records Description
Dates: 1950-55
Volume: less than 1 cubic foot
Records of the Seattle, Washington, Finance Center. The records relate to accounting and fiscal responsibilities, and are administrative correspondence and memorandums.

Record Group 326
Records of the Atomic Energy Commission

Administrative History
The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was established in 1946 to control the development and use of atomic energy, including the encouragement of private participation in research and practical uses of atomic energy. The AEC had responsibility to regulate nuclear materials in order to protect the health and safety of the public. It was concerned with fissionable material supply, development of reactors, development and testing of nuclear weapons, basic and applied research, dissemination of information relating to atomic energy, and development and administration of international cooperation for peaceful uses of atomic energy. The AEC was discontinued on October 11, 1974, and was replaced by two new agencies: the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The functions of ERDA were later incorporated into the Department of Energy when that department was created in October 1977.

Records Description
Dates: 1947-74
Volume: 146 cubic feet
Records of the Rockwell Hanford, Washington, facility. The records document labor negotiations, 1951-54, and consist of correspondence.

Records of the Idaho Falls, Idaho, Operations Office. The records document administration, litigation, nuclear projects, radioactive waste, and environmental radiation at the various Idaho Falls AEC facilities. Included is documentation of the 1957 Kellogg incident in which radioactive dust from a shipment from the Materials Testing Reactor at Idaho Falls was discharged into the Kellogg laboratory in Houston, Texas. The records consist of general correspondence and administrative files, technical reports and project case files. See RG 430 and RG 434 for related records.

Finding Aids
Box contents lists.

Record Group 336
Records of the Office of the Chief of Transportation

Administrative History
The Office of the Chief of Transportation was established in the Services of Supply (SOS), War Department on March 2, 1942, to head the Transportation Division. It was abolished by General Order 39 of December 1, 1964.

Records Description
Dates: 1941-50
Volume: 11 cubic feet
Records of the following installations:

• Army Navy Distributing Agency, Spokane, Washington;
• Army Regulating Station, Spokane, Washington;
• Auburn Holding and Reconsignment Point, Auburn, Washington;
• Portland Port of Embarkation, Portland, Oregon;
• Seattle Port of Embarkation, Seattle, Washington;
• Spokane Transportation Office, Spokane, Washington.

Record Group 338
Records of U.S. Army Commands

Administrative History
The present system of U.S. Army commands, which are organized both functionally and geographically, emerged from a War Department reorganization of February 28, 1942.

• Auburn General Depot, Auburn, Washington;
• 445th Quartermaster Depot, Ft. Lawton, Washington;
• Madigan Army Hospital, Ft. Lewis, Washington;
• Mt. Rainier Ordnance Depot, Tacoma, Washington;
• Seattle Quartermaster Depot, Seattle, Washington;
• Umatilla Depot, Hermiston, Oregon.

Finding Aids
Draft inventory.

Record Group 355
Records of the National Agricultural Statistics Service

Administrative History
The Bureau of Agricultural Economics was established within the Department of Agriculture on July 1, 1922. It continued the work of conducting studies and disseminating information relating to agricultural production, crop estimates, marketing, finance, labor, and other agricultural programs begun as early as 1903 by several other bureaus. In 1953, it was replaced by the Agricultural Marketing Service and Agricultural Research Service, which were merged in 1961 to form the Economic Research Service. The latter service became the Statistical Reporting Service in 1981.

Finding Aids
Box contents list.

Record Group 363
Records of the Social and Rehabilitation Service

Administrative History
The Social and Rehabilitation Service (SRS) was created within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) on August 15, 1967. The agency consisted of four components: the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, the Welfare Administration, the Administration on Aging, and the Division of Mental Retardation of the Public Health Service.
The SRS administered the Federal programs providing technical, consultative, and financial support to States, communities, other organizations, and individuals in their provision of such services as social rehabilitation; income maintenance; medical, maternal, and child health care; family and child welfare; and various other services to the aged, children, the disabled, and needy families.

The SRS consisted of the Office of the Administrator, five major central office program organizations, and the regional offices. The regional offices comprised the operating arm of the SRS, identifying and responding to the needs of the agency's regional constituents. Each regional office was headed by a Regional Commissioner; each consisted of program staffs in areas such as medicine, staff development, and statistics.

The functions of the SRS were distributed among new bureaus of HEW on May 4, 1980.

Finding Aids
List of grants.

Record Group 369
Records of the Employment and Training Administration

Administrative History
The Employment and Training Administration was established in the Department of Labor on November 12, 1975, as a successor to the Manpower Administration. The latter had been created in 1963 to consolidate all departmental organizations and activities that directed, coordinated, or supported manpower programs or operations. The Employment and Training Administration consists of the United States Employment Service, the Office of Comprehensive Employment Development Programs, the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, and the Unemployment Insurance Service. It conducts work experience and work training programs, funds and oversees programs conducted under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973, and administers the Federal-State Employment Security System.

Finding Aids
List of folder titles.

Record Group 370
Records of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Administrative History
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was formed on October 3, 1970, by Reorganization Plan No. 4, consolidating the Environmental Science Services Administration (ESSA) and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries. Its principal functions are to explore, map, and chart the ocean and to manage, use, and conserve its living resources; to describe, monitor, and predict weather conditions; to issue warnings against impending destructive natural events; to assess the consequences of inadvertent environment modification; and to manage and disseminate long-term environmental information.

Records Description
Dates: 1960-76
Volume: 56 cubic feet
Records of the Marine Fisheries Service. The records document a variety of influences on U.S. and Canadian fisheries in the Pacific Northwest, such as dams, pollution, and commercial fishing, and consist of correspondence, memorandums, program files, and reports.

Records of the Pacific Marine Center. The records relate to the Outer Shelf Energy Program, and consist of smooth sheet plots taken by NOAA surveying ships.

Finding Aids
Box contents lists.

Record Group 381
Records of the Community Services Administration

Administrative History
The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) was established in the Executive Office of the President by the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which created the Economic Opportunity Council. The Council, which included members from several Federal agencies, was to develop a coordinated approach in eliminating poverty. Regional offices were established in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Kansas City, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. The Economic Opportunity Act established programs that provided opportunities for low income persons to receive education and job training, to be employed, and to live in decent housing. The programs included Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), Community Action Programs, Job Corps, Economic Development Programs, and Legal Services Programs. Title I of the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966 added the Model Cities Program as another OEO program. In July 1973, several of the programs were transferred to other agencies. Eighteen months later, OEO ceased functioning after Job Corps, VISTA, and the Community Action Program were transferred to the Community Services Administration.

Record Description
Dates: 1968-74
Volume: 1 cubic foot
Records of the Seattle Office of Community Services. The records document Head Start programs, and consist of audit reports.

Finding Aids
Box contents list.

Record Group 392
Records of the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Districts and Defenses, 1901-42

Administrative History
In 1901, the Artillery Corps was divided into field artillery batteries and coast artillery companies under newly created artillery districts. Each district consisted of harbor defense forts, with accompanying minefields and land defenses. In 1913, the coast artillery districts were redesignated coast defense commands.

• Coast Defenses of the Columbia River;
• Harbor Defenses of Puget Sound;
• North Pacific Coast Artillery District.

Finding Aids
Entries 2-19, 90-100, and 279-290 in Sarah D. Powell, comp., Preliminary Inventory of the Textual Records of United States Army Coast Artillery Districts and Defenses, 1901-1942, NM 88 (1967).

Record Group 396
Records of the Office of Emergency Preparedness

Administrative History
The Office of Emergency Preparedness was established in the Executive Office of the President by an act of October 21, 1968 (82 Stat. 1194) to advise and assist the President in the coordination and determination of Federal emergency preparedness policy. It was abolished in 1973 and its functions transferred to the Office of Preparedness in the General Services Administration, the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Finding Aids
Box contents list.

Record Group 403
Records of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Administrative History
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established as an independent agency by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (78 Stat. 253) to monitor compliance with and enforce provisions of statutes to end discrimination in employment. The Commission's field offices receive charges of job discrimination under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Equal Pay Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Field offices may also initiate charges alleging that a violation of Title VII or the ADA has occurred.

Records Description
Dates: 1970-79
Volume: 126 cubic feet

Records of the Washington district office consisting of the plaintiff case files for the landmark case EEOC v. Ironworkers Local 86, in which the EEOC sued labor unions over the unions' failure to include minorities in their apprenticeship programs. The records are correspondence, memorandums, personnel files, and statistical information.

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

Record Group 412
Records of the Environmental Protection Agency

Administrative History
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was established in the executive branch as an independent agency pursuant to Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970, effective December 2, 1970. The EPA was created to coordinate Federal action in cooperation with State and local governments to abate and control pollution in the areas of air, water, solid waste, pesticides, radiation, and toxic substances. It conducts research, monitoring, standard setting, and enforcement activities.

Records Description
Dates: 1970-80
Volume: 29 cubic feet

Records of the Region X office, Seattle. The records document public hearings and adjudicatory hearings on proposed actions of private companies, and consist of minutes and written comments from the public.

Finding Aids
Box contents list.

Record Group 414
Records of Regional Committees and Commissions

Records of the Pacific Northwest Economic Development Regional Commission

Administrative History
Created on May 25, 1972, by the Secretary of Commerce at the request of the governors of the states of Idaho, Oregon and Washington, the Commission relected the commonality of interest of the three-state area in terms of economics, geography and hisotry . By statute, the Commission was required to develop a long-range comprehensive plan which, after review by the Federal Advisory Council on Regional Economic Development, would be submitted to the president and would serve as a guideline for federal program and project funding in the region.

Records Description
Dates: ca. 1972-75
Volume: less than 1 cubic foot

Records of the Pacific Northwest Economic Development Regional Commission. The records document the administration of the Commission and include its charter, bylaws, and manuals.

Record Group 430
Records of the Energy Research and Development Administration

Administrative History
The Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) was created in 1974, when it assumed many of the functions of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

Finding Aids
List of folder titles.

Record Group 433
Records of the Mine Safety and Health Administration

Administrative History
In May 1973, a Department of Interior order created the Mining Enforcement and Safety Administration (MESA) and moved the functions of the Health and Safety Division of the Bureau of Mines to MESA. The Mine Safety and Health Administration, created by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Amendment Act of 1977 (91 Stat. 1319), absorbed the functions of MESA.

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 gave the Administration strong enforcement provisions to protect the Nation's coal miners and in 1977 the Congress passed amendments which strengthened the act by expanding the Administration's responsibilities to the noncoal mining industry.

Records Description
Dates: 1972
Volume: 19 cubic feet
Records of the Bellevue, Washington, office. The records document the Sunshine Mine Disaster, Kellogg, Idaho, May 1972. Caused by a fire, it was the worst hard-rock mining disaster since 1917. The records consist of correspondence, investigatory materials, news clippings, notes from rescue operations, and transcripts.

Record Group 434
General Records of the Department of Energy

Administrative History
The Department of Energy (DOE) was created by an act of August 4, 1977, that consolidated the major Federal energy programs into one Cabinet-level agency. Among the functions transferred to DOE were those of the Alaska, Bonneville, and other regional power administrations. The DOE provides a framework for a comprehensive national energy plan through coordination and administration of research and regulatory programs in the Federal Government.

Finding Aids
Box contents list.

Record Group 513
Records of the Indian Health Service

Administrative History
The Indian Health Service administers Federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. Responsibility for the health of Native Americans who had submitted to Federal authority and become wards of the United States was initially vested in the Office of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior, redesignated the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 1947. Health services were administered locally through most of this period.

On July 1, 1955, the responsibility for Native American health care was formally transferred to the Public Health Service in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Public Health Service had been operating on behalf of the Bureau of Indian Affairs since 1926. The Division of Indian Health, a component of the Public Health Service, was redesignated as the Indian Health Service in 1968. When the Department of Health and Human Services was created in 1979, the Indian Health Service was transferred as part of the Public Health Service to the new department. The Indian Health Service achieved operating division status within the department in 1995.

Records Description
Dates: 1961-69
Volume: less than 1 cubic foot

Records of the Indian Heath Service, Portland, Oregon, office. The records are Bureau of Indian Affairs annual vital statistics reports for various area tribes.

Donated Materials Groups

Records of the Makah Tribal Council

Finding Aid
Folder title list.

Papers of Edwin P. Chalcraft