USDA History Collection

Brief Description of Collection

Title: The USDA History Collection

Provenance: Agricultural and Rural History Section, Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

Extent: ca. 650 cubic feet

Repository: National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, Beltsville, Maryland

Location: For access to this collection, contact Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, 301-504-5876

Administrative Information

Usage Restrictions
Materials created by agencies or employees of the United States government are in the public domain. Unless specified otherwise, the copyright interests in materials acquired or collected by government employees from outside sources have not been transferred to NAL or to the U.S. government.

Preferred Citation
[description of item, Series and Box/Folder number], USDA History Collection, Special Collections, National Agricultural Library.

Provenance
The USDA History Collection was transferred to the National Agricultural Library, Special Collections, from the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture in April 1996. Additional shipments of material were received in June, August, and October of 1997.

Processing Information
Processed by Alan H. Haeberle, Project Archivist; Matthew G. Brown, Heather M. Crocetto, Glenn R. Gray, and Rebecca A. Zeltinger, Graduate Assistants; with assistance of Christopher R. Miller, Graduate Assistant. Portions of the collection were processed by Mark Ames, Coralina Daly, Tom Eisinger, Scott Hertzberg, Thaddeus Krupo, Anne Meininger, Aaron Purcell, and Emma Wilmer, students in Dr. Bruce Dearstyne's course "Archival Principles, Practices, and Programs," LBSC 605, at the University of Maryland, College of Library and Information Services (link is external).

Processing of this collection has been supported through a cooperative agreement between the University of Maryland Libraries (UM Libraries) (link is external) and the United States Department of Agriculture (link is external), Agricultural Research Service (link is external), National Agricultural Library (NAL) (link is external).

Historical Note

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Agricultural History Section,
mid-1960s.

The materials in this collections were gathered over several decades by the staff of the Agricultural and Rural History Section (ARH) of the Economic Research Service (ERS). The ARH staff served as the official historians for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Historical work was carried out by various divisions in USDA over the years, principally by the Division of Statistical and Historical Research, which was part of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAE) from its formation in 1922. When the BAE was abolished in 1953, the Division of Statistical and Historical Research was transferred to the Agricultural Marketing Service, 1953-1961. The Agricultural and Rural History Section (also called the Agricultural History Branch, or Agriculture and Rural History Branch) was established when the ERS was organized in 1961, and it inherited the Statistical and Historical Research files. The ARH was closed in 1994.

Items in the USDA History Collection Collection

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Extension Service Report title page

Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work for 1910. Project and Annual report memoranda, Rice Demonstrations in 1909. Property of Office of Extension Work in the South, States Relations Service, United States Department of Agriculture, 1921. Title page…

Herbert Hoover message, USFA book

To the Girls and Boys of America: Now that the terrible war is over, you must be glad that you helped to win it by saving food for our soldiers and our unhappy friends across the sea. But our work of feeding hungry people is now to be greater than it…

IEFC meeting

Cover of the USDA publication Consumers' Guide, with a report inside on the first meeting of the International Emergency Food Council (IEFC) in Washington D.C. The Council was organized to deal with the world food crisis after the end of World War…

IEFC, p. 5, Consumers' Guide

An illustration on page 5 of an issue of the USDA publication Consumers' Guide, with a report on the first meeting of the International Emergency Food Council (IEFC) in Washington D.C. The Council was organized to deal with the world food crisis…

IEFC, p.3, Consumers' Guide

An illustration on page 3 of an issue of the USDA publication Consumers' Guide, with a report on the first meeting of the International Emergency Food Council (IEFC) in Washington D.C. The Council was organized to deal with the world food crisis…

Prairie Experiences in Handling Cattle and Sheep, p.40 Illustration

Illustration on page 40 of Prairie Experiences in Handling Cattle and Sheep, by Major W. Shepherd, published in 1884. Caption reads "Lassoing on the Prairie."

Prairie Experiences in Handling Cattle and Sheep, opening illustration

Illustration opposite title page of Prairie Experiences in Handling Cattle and Sheep, by Major W. Shepherd, published in 1884. Caption reads "Interior of Ranch."

Sir John Sinclair letter. USDA History Collection

Letter of Sir John Sinclair, dated London, 8 December 1800. Found among the Thomas Jefferson material in the Class File (Series II). Letter makes reference to an unfulfilled request for specimens of limestone from the North of Scotland. Letter is…

Prairie Experiences in Handling Cattle and Sheep, Title page

Title page of Prairie Experiences in Handling Cattle and Sheep by Major W. Shepherd, published in 1884.Series XI, Personal Papers, Box 11/Starch 13, USDA History Collection, Special Collections, National Agricultural Library.

Title page, USFA book

Title page of the book Food Saving and Sharing, published in 1918 by the United States Food Administration. The full title adds "Telling How the Older Children in America May Help Save from Famine Their Comrades in Allied Lands Across the Sea."Series…