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Title: North Dakota Guide
Dates: 1900-1939
Collection Number: 00649
Quantity: 18 items
Provenance: The North Dakota State Archives acquired these photographs through the auspices of the Historical Data Project, Professional and Service Division, Work Projects Administration, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota, ca.1936-1940.
Copyright: Public records are not subject to copyright restrictions, although record series may contain copyrighted material. Consideration of such copyrights is the responsibility of the author and publisher.
Access: These records are available for public inspection under provision of the North Dakota Century Code, 55-02.1-08.
Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the record group, series name and number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.
Related Collections:
30522 Historical Society. North Dakota Writers’ Project, North Dakota Guide
PREFACE – from North Dakota: a Guide to the Northern Prairie State, 1938:
North Dakota: a Guide to the Northern Prairie State is something new in this part of the country. For the first time North Dakotans and their guests have a concise but comprehensive survey of the State, which tells them what should be seen, and why, and how. Our aim has been a book not only to be used in touring the State, but to be enjoyed by fireside travelers and all who would deepen their understanding of North Dakota.
As one of the volumes in the American Guide Series, written by members of the Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration, the North Dakota guide has more than State significance, wide as this is. The National project was designed primarily to give useful employment to needy writers and research workers; it has developed into a more ambitious undertaking. The American Guide Series, covering forty-eight states, Puerto Rico, Alaska, and numerous cities and towns, is unrolling a unique and inspiring panorama of these United States with their lively background and their vibrant present. The North Dakota guide adds its contributions to the whole, giving the reader a picture of the State, its land and resources, its history, people, the cities and towns they have built, and the principal points of interest. New chapters in North Dakota’s story and other phases of its life and works are still to be told. This volume—a pioneer enterprise in a State where the records of the past and the varied life of today had to been heretofore assembled—may well serve as an incentive and a foundation for further books.
Not ten or fifty or a hundred, but actually hundreds of North Dakotans helped in the making of the guide, from the many who contributed information about their own communities or field of work down to the handful of editors and writers who brought that information within the covers of this book.
- Ethel Schlasinger State Director
SCOPE AND CONTENT
The Federal Writers Project was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935. One of the most important outcomes of the project was the American Guide Series, published in the 48 states, Alaska Territory, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. The books contained historical materials, descriptions of the states, and driving tours. The North Dakota Writers’ Project also began in 1935 and was sponsored by the Division of Women’s and Professional Projects, the WPA, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota. The North Dakota Writers Project records consist of 16 record series of which the North Dakota Guide is one. The North Dakota Guide Files consist of manuscript drafts of the North Dakota Guide, survey instructions, reports, memoranda, county and city histories, miscellaneous publications, and correspondence concerning the collection of the data, publicity, and publication. Research for the articles was done by residents of the local communities and many of the drafts contain the names of the authors.
PHOTOGRAPHS INVENTORY
00649-02 Ink drawn map of Minot (ND) 1900
00649-05 Theodore Roosevelt Statue in Roosevelt Park, Minot (ND)
00649-06 Ole Anderson
00649-07 Looking from power unit towards thresher in operation
00649-08 Oat Field
00649-09 Flax Field 1912
00649-12 Here Chick Chick Chick!!!
00649-13 Wheat field, Cavalier County, near Walhalla (ND)
00649-14 W.J. Steinbach holding aloft two ears of corn in cornfield, New Rockford (ND) 1939
00649-18 Magpie Rock, Killdeer Mountains, Killdeer (ND)
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