Finding Aid Search

Title

Executive secretaries' correspondence with state and War Council agencies

Series Number

A4361

Summary

This series contains correspondence and other materials between the Executive Secretary and state and War Council agencies primarily concerning the organization of defense-related work. Topics of the letters include war rationing; citizen morale; discrimination in employment; health; labor; and transportation.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Organizational history research file

Series Number

A4344

Summary

This series contains records from a wide array of War Council agencies detailing major events in the agencies' formation, the execution of their duties, or appointment of officers. They were apparently culled from other records to document significant aspects of the council's history. Document types include monthly reports, meeting minutes, correspondence, resolutions, programs, pamphlets, sample forms, and memoranda-of-understanding. Subjects include: child care; fire protection; labor safety; nutrition; physical fitness; police reports; production; rationing; salvage; transportation; victory gardens; and vocational training.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Executive secretary's correspondence with local war councils

Series Number

A4303

Summary

The bulk of this series consists of correspondence between the War Council's Executive Secretary, coordinator of all Council activities, and various officers of local war councils. The letters dealt with specific issues and not routine contact with local organizations and the Secretary. Topics include a number of home front issues such as: child care; civil defense; civilian mobilization; food preservation; labor issues; physical fitness; rationing; recreation; transportation; war nutrition; and victory gardens.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Government agency automobile usage rationing coordination files

Series Number

A4243

Summary

This series contains correspondence between Milton Alpert, Departmental Mileage Administrator for the War Council, and other government officials; bulletins from the federal Office of Price Administration detailing new regulations and amendments concerning gasoline and tire rationing; travel vouchers for the various agencies of the War Council; and file cards listing all State employees who used a personal car on official business. The records relate to the administration of rationing procedures as part of the office's duty to conserve resources.

Creator

• New York State War Council. Office of the Mileage Administrator

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Home front information publications file

Series Number

A4287

Summary

This series consists of publications from national, state (including other War Council agencies), and private organizations involved in war work collected by the Office of War Information to assist the office when informing citizens about war-related activities on the home front. Pamphlets, booklets, brochures, and other printed material about salvage drives, civil defense issues, rationing, agricultural practices, war bond drives, cooking and homemaking, morale issues, and first aid, among other topics, are found.

Creator

• New York State War Council. Division of Public Relations

Title

History of Westchester County defense and war councils

Series Number

A4292

Summary

The volumes which comprise this series are condensed from the 31-volume complete version kept in the Office of the Westchester County Clerk, County Court House, in White Plains, New York. These volumes were presented to the New York State War Council in 1946. The condensed version and the larger complete history were compiled to document the efforts of this local War Council. Included are: activities and sub-organizations of the council; bulletins; special orders; general orders; regulations; and circulars.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Defense programs coordination correspondence

Series Number

A4325

Summary

This correspondence documents the cooperative efforts of the Office of Civilian Mobilization (OCM), state and federal agencies, and private organizations as they sought to to coordinate, publicize, and implement programs related to home front activities such as child care, recreation, nutrition, health care, agriculture, and education. This effort was in response to manpower shortages, and because the continuation of volunteer services was crucial to the overall well-being of New Yorkers.

Creator

• New York State War Council. Office of Civilian Mobilization

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Public relations coordination files

Series Number

A4315

Summary

This series contains correspondence, memoranda, and a small amount of posters, broadsides, and pamphlets detailing the service's coordination of public relations for the War Council. Included are "clipping summaries" which briefly describe a press release and list the newspapers which carried it; files of Alice Tierney Scanlan, an assistant in the service who worked with the War Transportation Committee; director's material; and discussions of the "Sappy and Silly Sabotire" comic strip, used to promote tire and automobile rationing.

Creator

• New York State War Council. War Information Service

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

State and War Council agencies and local war councils general reporting files

Series Number

A4301

Summary

This series contains correspondence, bulletins, newsletters, and posters sent to the War Council's Executive Secretary reporting on activities of agencies involved in war work and local war councils. Many organizations are represented in this series, including: Emergency Food Commission; Nursing Council; Office of Civilian Mobilization; Office of Civilian Protection; and Salvage Division. Topics discussed include: civil defense; child care; housing; labor; rationing; salvage; and education and training.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Governor's media releases

Series Number

A4294

Summary

This series contains press releases, bulletins, telegrams, radio address transcripts, correspondence, and meeting minutes released by the Governor Lehman's office to inform the public of War Council (and its predecessor, the Council of Defense) activities. Tthe Governor's involvement in these activities included production rates; appointments to the War Council; wartime housing; security; agriculture; labor disputes and strikes; civil defense; scrap metal drives; tire and gasoline shortages; venereal disease prevention programs; labor shortages; savings bonds; physical fitness; and training programs.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Temporary State Commission for Postwar Public Works Planning minutes

Series Number

B1358

Summary

The minutes include discussions about the activities of the Temporary State Commission for Postwar Public Works Planning, location space, lists of projects undertaken, lists of unfinished business, additional projects to be conducted, and progress reports. Also found in this series are lists of projects rescinded, laws relating to post-war planning, fund requests, interim reports, and final reports.

Creator

• New York (State). Temporary State Commission for Postwar Public Works Planning

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Meeting coordination correspondence files

Series Number

A4309

Summary

This series contains notices sent by Governor Herbert H. Lehman announcing War Council (and its predecessor, the Council of Defense) meetings, accompanied by replies from council members indicating their intended attendance or absence. These meetings were held at the Governor's home in New York City or at the Executive Mansion in Albany, as part of the coordination efforts of the Governor as chairman of the council. In addition to the correspondence, lists of War Council members and agendas and minutes for some early meetings are also included.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Progress reports of war council and state agencies

Series Number

A4312

Summary

This series contains monthly, quarterly, or annual progress reports sent to the State War Plans Coordinator from War Council agencies and state agencies involved in war workThe reports document detail the progress, problems, and plans of the various agencies in such areas as agriculture; child care; citizen morale; civil defense; civilian mobilization; commerce; discrimination in employment; education; health issues; housing; labor; nursing; police training; rationing; salvage; vocational training; war training; and war transportation.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Photographs of War Council agency activities

Series Number

A4299

Summary

This series contains over 300 black-and-white photographs (most 8 x 10) taken to document the activities of, and the individuals who worked for, the New York State War Council. Photographs depict: the Emergency Food Commission; salvage collection; the Physical Fitness Office; U.S. Cadet Nurses; the War Bond program; migrant labor camps; the Home Accident Prevention program; Chinese labor as part of the Farm Manpower Service; publicity activities; War Council officers and personnel; victory gardens; and child care institutions.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Resolutions

Series Number

A3085

Summary

This series contains resolutions issued by the War Council (and its predecessor, the Council of Defense) as part of its mandate to coordinate war time needs. The resolutions cover a range of topics including: appointments to council offices; work of special committees; budget requests to the legislature; allocation of funds to various programs; civil defense issues (including National Guard matters); and changes to and rescindment of resolutions.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

War information publications file

Series Number

A3091

Summary

This series consists of printed annual and special reports, handbooks, pamphlets, posters and training materials issued by state and federal agencies involved in the home front effort. The publications provide civilians with information on numerous war related issues, and deal with a wide range of social and economic issues relating to war efforts underway. Subjects included are: civil defense; commerce; discrimination in employment; economics; education; emergency training; health and nutrition; job recruitment; labor; nursing; physical education; rationing; and war training.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Governor Thomas E. Dewey central subject and correspondence files

Series Number

13682_55;_13682_55A

Summary

Thomas E. Dewey's governorship blended fiscal conservatism with a personal conviction that government bore a share of the responsibility for the welfare of the citizenry. During his tenure, New York's state university system was established and construction of the New York State Thruway was begun. These records also document post-war economic readjustment, sponsorship of social legislation, including the landmark 1945 "Law against Discrimination," and investigations of conditions in mental hospitals, including management and affairs of Creedmoor State Hospital.

Creator

• New York (State). Governor (1943-1954 : Dewey)

Access Restrictions

Access to certain records documenting Moreland Act investigations is restricted. Records are subject to review by State Archives staff prior to disclosure.

Title

Rationed resources coordination correspondence

Series Number

A4313

Summary

This series contains correspondence between the Bureau of Rationing and state agencies and local boards. The Bureau of Rationing was established to act as a liaison between the federal government's rationing program and local rationing boards. The correspondence details the procedures and requirements of the bureau in its efforts to coordinate rationing procedures. Much of the material documents appeals concerning automobile rationing decisions, but information on coffee, gasoline, rubber, shoes, sugar, and tires is also found.

Creator

• New York State War Council. Bureau of Rationing

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Agendas and minutes

Series Number

A4304

Summary

This series contains agendas and minutes from meetings held as part of the War Council's effort to coordinate statewide home front activities, and to organize the state in a time of crisis. Chaired by the Governor, and consisting of prominent business, community, and legislative leaders, the council met once or twice a month at the Executive Mansion in Albany to discuss issues relating to new and existing programs, and the organization of the State War Council and local War Councils.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.

Title

Social and economic surveys of New York cities

Series Number

A4343

Summary

This series primarily contains reports compiled by the federal National Resources Planning Board and the Office of Defense Health and Welfare Services detailing conditions in several communities. The reports, which detail each community's conditions in education, health, housing, industry, infrastructure, labor, planning, and transportation - and discuss the impact of the war and military on these areas - were sent to the State War Council to assist with war planning efforts.

Creator

• New York State War Council

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.