Scope and Contents: President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1933 both as a means to provide jobs and training for unemployed young men, and to increase, preserve, and restore the nation's resources. CCC members were organized in para-military camps of two hundred men each and were engaged in over two hundred types of conservation projects. At its peak in 1935, over 500,000 enrollees lived in 2,650 camps across the nation. Congress abolished the CCC in 1942.
The CCC collection is divided into four parts. Part I relates to CCC Co. 1683, Camp New Salem, Petersburg, Ill., and contains correspondence, programs, and nine issues of the camp newspaper. Parts II and III contain material on two CCC alumni organizations: the Brotherhood of Ex-CCCers, and the National Association of Civilian Conservation Corps Alumni. Part IV contains slides of a photographic exhibit on the CCC and other New Deal organizations, including images of Camp New Salem.
The collection was donated to the Library by Eugene Runyan in 1980, and by Albert Kaufman, Jr., and Andy M. Kmetz in 1981-82, all of Urbana or Champaign, Ill. The exhibit slides were contributed by Professor Carl V. Patton, Department of Urbana and Regional Planning, University of Illinois.
| Illinois History and Lincoln Collections
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