Scope and Contents:
This collection contains records from Camp New Salem (Civilian Conservation Corps Co. 1683) in Petersburg, Illinois, as well as materials from two alumni organizations of the Civilian Conservation Corps.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was launched in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a work relief program for unemployed young men to restore and preserve public lands. As part of Roosevelt's New Deal Program, CCC members were organized in para-military camps of two hundred men and were engaged in over two hundred different types of conservation projects through America's public parks and forests. At its peak in 1935, over 500,000 enrollees lived in 2,650 camps across the nation. The CCC was slowly dissolved after Congress defunded the program in 1942.
This collection is divided into four parts. Part one contains correspondence, programs, and newspapers from CCC Camp New Salem in Petersburg, Illinois. Parts two and three contain materials from two CCC alumni organizations, The Brotherhood of Ex-CCCers and The National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni. The final part contains photographic slides, used in an exhibit of the CCC and other New Deal Organizations.
The Civilian Conservation Corps collection was donated by Eugene Runyan in 1980, and by Albert Kaufman, Jr. and Andy M. Kmetz in 1981-1982, all of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. The exhibit slides were contributed by Professor Carl V. Patton, Department of Urbana and Regional Planning, University of Illinois.
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