Collection on the Civilian Conservation Corps, 326th Company of New Germany, Maryland

Collection

Identifier: MS0294

Staff Only

Content Description

The Collection on the Civilian Conservation Corps, 326th Company of New Germany, Maryland contains photographs and papers related to the 326th Company of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). CCC activities represented include camp life, work projects, national defense, and education.

Dates

Creation: Circa early 1930s to early 1940s

Conditions Governing Access

Contact Special Collections for access.

Organizational History

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs established to help the United States recover from the economic disaster of the Great Depression. The CCC was created as a result of the Emergency Conservation Work Act. It operated from 1933 to 1942. In those nine years, over three million unemployed young men joined the CCC and worked on projects designed to protect and conserve America's natural resources.

Programs were established in the 48 states and four territories (Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Some of the jobs done by members of the CCC included fighting fires, building roads, erecting fire towers, constructing soil erosion controls, and planting more than 3 billion trees. The CCC also helped to develop recreational facilities in parks of many jurisdictions (from metropolitan to national).

The CCC began to decline in the early 1940s, mostly due to a better economy and the United States' entry into World War II. Congress withdrew funding for the CCC because it was not considered essential to the war effort.