Related materials in Series 1653: School Building Surveys from the Act of 1953 (see "Related Material" link below)

Related materials in Series 1655: Educational Finance Commission Docket Files (see "Related Material" link below)

For a detailed list of photographs in this series, see printed finding aid or list within each box.

Fifty-eight scrapbooks containing photographs of school buildings from thirty-nine Mississippi counties and eleven Mississippi cities. The photographs, which are mainly exterior views, document the condition of public schools during this era. The photographs show various school facilities, and each box contains an itemized list of schools represented and the number of prints for each school. More than half of the county scrapbooks include maps showing school location, student residences and/or transportation routes for the county. Due to the deteriorated condition of the scrapbooks, some were disassembled and placed in archival-quality folders. Education-related newspaper clippings spanning the years 1954-1969 are included in Box #8859.

These photographs originally accompanied school building survey reports, which may be found in Series 1653. Since different universities or consulting firms compiled the reports, their formats varied: some reports were accompanied by genuine photographs placed in separate albums or scrapbooks (the contents of this series, Series 1513), while other reports contained printed copies of photographs that were bound in with the text (Series 1653). Some school photographs from this survey may also be found in Series 1655, the Educational Finance Commission Docket Files.

At the extraordinary session of 1953, the Mississippi Legislature abolished the more than 2,000 school districts which were in existence at that time and charged the Educational Finance Commission with the reorganization of the state into school districts which would improve the efficiency of the education of children and the operation of the schools. This reorganization was to be accomplished by July 1, 1957. Appeals of the redistricting plans and transfer agreements between school districts continued to be forwarded long after the mandated completion date. Before any redistricting or consolidation could take place, the law required that surveys of existing school facilities must be made.

Forms part of: Dept. of Education Records (formerly RG 50).

Cite as: Series 1513: School Photograph Scrapbooks.