Alliance for Guidance of Rural Youth Series, 1922-1966

Scope and content:

This is the largest series in the Warburton collection. It contains correspondence, reports, studies, clippings, printed material, photographs, and volumes from Warburton's sixteen-year tenure as executive secretary and director of research of the Alliance for Guidance of Rural Youth. The organization disbanded in 1963.

Approximately sixty percent of this series came to the library already organized. The remaining forty percent of the material was unorganized and had to be integrated into the organized material. With modifications and additions, the integration of the material was done using the original (1949) index to the office files as a guide.

Material in the collection is arranged by subject, and within subject by type (correspondence, printed material, etc.) The subjects are not arranged alphabetically or chronologically, so researchers should carefully study the subject entries for the entire series before plunging into the material. Also there is considerable overlapping of material in the series. For instance, correspondence from Glyn Morris of Harlan County, Kentucky, could be found under Harlan County or under Board of Trustees, depending on the subject. Consequently, researchers should expect to examine several subject headings if the topic is broad.

Once the inventory is studied, researchers will find rich sources of information on socioeconomic conditions in several rural or rural-industrial communities: Harlan County, Kentucky, Green Sea, South Carolina, and Belle Glade, Florida. Much of the work done in these and other communities was compressed into terse, lucid studies that can be found under the heading "Publications" in boxes 26 and 27. There is also much material on the day-to-day operations of several guidance organizations: Alliance for Guidance of Rural Youth, Council of Guidance and Personnel Associations, and the National Council of Agricultural Life and Labor.

Contents

Using These Materials