USDA Bureau of Plant Industry Records

Collection

Identifier: MS0242

Staff Only

Content Description

The USDA Bureau of Plant Industry Records consist of a scrapbook detailing the activities of the Bureau of Plant Industry from the 1920s to the early 1950s. Materials are black and white photographs (some tinted) and negatives of Bureau of Plant Industry employees, including botanist S. L. Emsweller, research stations and gardens around the United States, and crops. Subjects of the photographs include staff, buildings, offices, laboratories, fields, and orchards. There are also research station maps and plans, clippings, and correspondence. Most of the material dates from the 1930s through the 1940s. Many items are unidentified or missing. There are also numerous loose materials inserted in the scrapbook.

Dates

Creation: 1920-1959
Creation: Majority of material found within 1920-1950

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Special Collections for access.

Organizational History

The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) formed in 1901 as a major consolidation of several independent units that all had in common the research of plant and crop science. The BPI had a major focus on doing its experimentation on farms. For its first 40 years, the main research center for the BPI was the Arlington (Virginia) Experimental Farm. In addition, the bureau investigated problems related to crop pests, and it also provided instruction programs for farmers around the country. Other major areas of research included seeds, plant disease and pathology, and breeding. The BPI had come together as a collection of research divisions, and continued to maintain and expand these. There were divisions for such areas as botany, fiber plants, plant exploration and introduction, tobacco, cereal crops, and mycology.

The BPI was placed under the Agricultural Research Administration in 1942, and was merged with the engineering research functions of the Bureau of Agricultural Chemistry and Engineering to form the Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering (BPISAE). The BPISAE was abolished in 1953 with the reorganization of the USDA. In 1972, the functions that had once belonged to the BPI were transferred to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).