The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established as a national agency on May 6, 1935, by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a relief measure during the Great Depression and lasted until 1943. The name was changed to Works Projects Administration in 1939. In Texas, the WPA helped 600,000 persons to provide subsistence for themselves and their families, predominantly by employment in construction projects. Other major programs included the Texas Historical Records Survey and the Texas Writers' Project. The Historical Records Survey hired historians, lawyers, teachers, and clerical workers to prepare inventories of unpublished records and documents of each governmental unit. The Writers' Project employed qualified persons to conduct research into the state's cultural history and its geographical points of interest, resulting in the publication of several state and local guides to Texas.
From the guide to the Works Progress Administration Records 1940s through 98-337. 35824959., 1933-1943, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
