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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

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.

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Select Below USDA Division of Cereal Crops and Diseases Photographs Collection Agricultural Research Service Insect Biocontrol Laboratory Rose Gall Midge Photographs Charles Edwin Kellogg Papers Edward Fred Knipling Papers Frank N. Meyer Collection George Washington Carver Correspondence Collection Harry William Schoening Papers Hazel Katherine Stiebeling Papers J. Horace McFarland Collection Manuscripts - Alvin L. Young Collection on Agent Orange - Beverly Thomas Galloway Papers - Charles Valentine Riley Papers - Dorsett-Morse Oriental Agricultural Exploration Expedition Collection - Elsie Carper Collection on Extension Service, Home Economics, and 4-H - Layne R. Beaty Papers - Screwworm Eradication Records - Thomas Jefferson Correspondence - USDA History Collection -- Series I. Documentary Files -- Series VI. Newsletters -- Series VII. Photographs -- Series X. Manuscripts -- Series XI. Personal Papers Maximilian and Bodmer Mycology Handwriting Samples Nursery and Seed Catalogs Owen Hugh Graham Papers Physical Exhibitions Poster Collection - Elsie Carper Collection on Extension Service, Home Economics, and 4-H - Rural Electrification Administration Posters - War Posters - World War I - War Posters - World War II - Women's Land Army Posters Quartermaster Corps Front Royal Remount Station Photographs Rare Books Robert Leslie Usinger Collection on Carolus Linnaeus Severn Run's Cazador (Caz), Screwworm Detection Dog, Collection: Screwworm Eradication Program Records Thomas E. Devine Papers U.S. Forest Service Smokey Bear Collection - Rudy Wendelin Gallery USDA Bureau of Plant Industry Horticultural and Pomological Investigations Records USDA Division of Agricultural Engineering Records USDA Drug and Poisonous Plant Investigations Photograph Collection USDA Human Nutrition Information Service Records USDA Pink Bollworm Project Photograph Collection Wilbur Olin Atwater Papers

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Select Below Historic Poster Collections Smokey Bear Popcorn: Ingrained in America's Agricultural History The American Dairy Industry An Illustrated Expedition of North America Frank N. Meyer Past Exhibits Rare Books Nursery and Seed Trade Catalogs Images from Manuscript Collections USDA History Collection Young, Alvin L., Collection on Agent Orange STOP Screwworms: Selections from the Screwworm Eradication Collection Year 2015 Calendar Exhibits USDA's Contributions to Veterinary Parasitology Events at the Library Year 2016 Calendar Exhibits Archeological Discoveries During Stream Restoration Who was J. Horace McFarland?