USDA Division of Farm Population and Rural Life Records

Collection

Identifier: MS0244

Staff Only

Content Description

The USDA Division of Farm Population and Rural Life Records consist of reports, manuscripts, and unpublished addresses cited in Sociology in Government: A Bibliography of the Work of the Division of Farm Population and Rural Life, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1919-1953 (Olaf Frederick Larson, Edward O. Moe, and Julie Nadine Zimmerman, Westview Press in cooperation with the American Sociological Association and the Rural Sociological Society, 1992). Also included are several additional reports and memoranda not cited in the book, but related to the subject.

Dates

Creation: 1935-1953
Creation: Majority of material found within 1936-1946

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Special Collections for access.

Organizational History

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Division of Farm Population and Rural Life existed under the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (BAE). The division was established in 1919, and it was the first unit in the history of the federal government to have the sole purpose of conducting sociological research. During the 1910s and 1920s, work was done to build up knowledge about rural life. The research was based on farm population, the organization of rural communities, family life, and standards of living on farms. During the Depression era, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, there was higher demand for information from new agricultural agencies like the Agricultural Adjustment Agency, the Farm Security Administration, and the Soil Conservation Service. The research being done helped to develop programs to improve living conditions for the rural and farm population of the United States.

During World War II, research in the division was strictly directed toward winning the war. Much of the research being done was designated for dissemination only within the federal government. Upon the reorganization of the USDA in 1953, the functions of the BAE were reassigned to the Agricultural Research Service and the Agricultural Marketing Service.