Scope and Content: The Historical Records Survey was established in Massachusetts in 1936 under the direction of the federal government’s Works Progress Administration (WPA).  In 1939, under federal mandate requiring state sponsorship of the survey, the state secretary shared direction of it with the WPA, now renamed Work Projects Administration.  In Massachusetts the Historical Records Survey undertook a number of projects including surveys of county records, local government records, church and synagogue records, and manuscript collections.  Survey files were developed with the intention of publishing guides to the records; however, lack of funding and the onset of World War II led to the termination of the survey in 1942 with only a few publications having been issued.  Survey files include survey forms, lists of repositories, notes, draft reports, historical sketches, and related materials, interspersed with correspondence and administrative materials.
Arrangement:  In six subseries: (1) County survey files  (2) Town survey files  (3) Miscellaneous  (4) Legal research files  (5) Manuscript survey files  (6) Church survey files; arranged within each subseries alphabetically by locality
Notes: Upon termination of the project in 1942, unpublished survey materials were deposited with the Forbes Library in Northampton. They were transferred to the State Library in 1972 and to the Archives in 1980
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