Scope and Content: The Historical Records Survey was established in Massachusetts in 1936 as a part of the Federal Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). One of many federal government-sponsored projects created to provide employment to white-collar workers during the Depression, the survey employed clerical workers and professionals to inventory unpublished records and documents in public and private archives across the nation. The Historical Records Survey was federally funded and directed until Aug.1939, when federal law required state administrative sponsorship and greater financial responsibility for the projects. The Massachusetts state secretary was sponsor with the WPA, now renamed the Work Projects Administration. Lack of funding and the need to staff war projects led to the discontinuation of the survey in 1942. –In Massachusetts, the Historical Records Survey undertook, among other projects, an inventory of early American portraits located in the state. Physical surveys, mailings, and other correspondence were used to identify and locate potential portraits, with forms or cards used to compile information. Massachusetts was initially surveyed for portraits through 1800, but eventually through 1825, by 1937. An initial two-volume catalog, American portraits, 1620-1825, found in Massachusetts (Boston, Mass. :  Historical Records Survey, 1939) (alpha by sitter) was published May 1939. Subsequent dates for data collection were eventually extended through 1860, but the planned supplementary third volume was never published. –By Aug.1937, the Massachusetts team was called to coordinate the portrait survey in other New England states and New York, to produce state checklists and catalogs, to be distributed to a limited number of major public libraries and historical societies repositories. State projects included: Connecticut (preliminary checklist, work discontinued in 1940); Maine: preliminary catalog: American portraits, 1645-1850, found in the state of Maine (Boston, Mass. : Historical Records Survey, 1941), published Nov. 1941, work on final volume  extended to 1860 in 1942; New Hampshire: preliminary check list to 1850 distributed Dec. 1941, extended to 1860 in 1942; New York: preliminary check list to 1840 as of 1942; Rhode Island: preliminary checklist distributed 1941, revisions undertaken in 1942, extended to 1835; Vermont: initial checklist to 1825, to 1860 by 1940, records returned to Vermont, Jan. 1941.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (I) Project files  (II) Survey files ; arranged within each subseries by state
Notes: The Massachusetts office was closed July 20, 1942, and materials were deposited with the Forbes Library in Northampton. Transferred to the State Library in 1972 and to the Massachusetts Archives in 1980. While in State Library custody series was microfilmed for the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution (reels 1238- 1249–see (OCoLC)86118609) –Photographs (subseries I, box 5) separated during original processing
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