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About the Collection - WPA Cards

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  • WPA census cards View (99924 items) | About
  • WPA employee records View (248 items) | About

Collection Description

The Works Progress Administration Los Angeles Household Census Cards collection dates from 1939. The physical cards which number nearly half a million items are owned by USC's Information Services, Regional History Collection. More than a quarter of the collection has been digitized. The household survey cards (or "dwelling schedules"), one for each street address in greater Los Angeles, document a wide variety of information ranging from the type of dwelling, the value of the property, the monthly rent or mortgage, to whether or not there were flush toilets. While these cards form the bulk of the collection, other digitized documents include "block face cards" and "block lists" -- documenting the census process -- as well as employee records which provide a fascinating view of the background and skills of the census takers themselves. Naturally, in this city of the car, the employee records include whether or not the employee owned an automobile.


CITE AS: Creator. Title. Date. From the WPA household census cards and employee records, Los Angeles, 1939. Digitally reproduced by the University of Southern California Digital Archive. Available: URL. Access date.


EXAMPLE CITE AS: . WPA household census for 3670 ATLANTIC. 1939. From the WPA household census cards and employee records, Los Angeles, 1939. Digitally reproduced by the University of Southern California Digital Archive. Available: http://digarc.usc.edu. Accessed June 10, 2004.


PHYSICAL LOCATION: Regional History Center, Archival Research Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0182


CONTACT: (213) 743-2117; (213) 743-1778; taube@usc.edu; slac@usc.edu


Title:

WPA household census cards and employee records, Los Angeles, 1939

Alternate Title:

WPA cards

Record ID:

wpacards-m85342

Names & Dates

Created:

1939

Contributor:

University of Southern California. Department of Geography

Publisher:

[host] University of Southern California. Libraries

Subject

Topic:

housing areas , Dwellings , Employees

Coverage:

1939

Place:

[counties] Los Angeles
[states/provinces] California
[countries] USA

Relationships

Contains:

[collection] WPA household census employee records, Los Angeles, 1939

[collection] WPA household census cards, Los Angeles, 1939

Physical

Type:

collections
texts

Format:

surveys
personnel records
job applications
cards : color, ink or pencil ; 5 x 7 in.
pages : color, ink or pencil ; 8 1/2 x 11 in.

Access

Rights:

University of Southern California

Repository:

specol@usc.edu
specol@usc.edu

Ordering:

Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@usc.edu; phone (213) 821-2366; fax (213) 740-2343

Identifiers

Record ID:

wpacards-m85342

Source:

WPA-B, WPA-C, WPA-E

Language:

en_us

Collection Sampling

wpacards-m75579
WPA household census for 1310 MONTECITO ...
wpacards-m75556
WPA household census for 1167 MONTECITO ...
wpacards-m75545
WPA household census for 4306 LATONA AVE...
wpacards-m75540
WPA household census for 757 E 43RD AVEN...