![[logo]](https://static.lib.vt.edu/images/logo/lockup-color-347x75.png){kind=logo}
Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)John M. Jackson, Archivist
The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.
Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction .
Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.
The collection is open for research.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia), Ms1940-023, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia), was acquired by Special Collections in 1962. The collection was originally cataloged under the title "Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Polytechnic Institute Home Economics Study of Grayson County, Virginia Families."
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia), was completed in May 2013.
A survey of rural standards of living was conducted in Grayson County, Virginia by the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Home Economics and the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station in June 1931. As part of a larger cooperative study of social and economic conditions in the southern Appalachian highlands, the resulting report was to "form the basis for the development of effective and much needed home extension work as well as furnish valuable information of use to the departments of education, public health, the state traveling library, and other agencies in the state and county" (from the Annual Report of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute Agricultural Experiment Station , 1931). The survey employed several temporary workers to collect data from approximately 330 Grayson County homes. Compilers collected data on such items as sources of income, food produced, wild foods gathered, clothing and food purchases, family size, education, occupations and locations of adult children not at home, indebtedness, types of home, and amounts spent on health and personal items. Included among this data is a set of questions relating to individuals within the family, including birthplaces, names of parents, relationships, etc.
Data from the survey was eventually used in a report by Faith M. Williams titled "Variations in Farm-Family Living," which appeared in United States Department of Agriculture Miscellaneous Publication No. 205, Economic and Social Problems and Conditions of the Southern Appalachian Highlands . Tabulations were also used in the production of the manuscript, "Rural Family Living in Grayson County, Va." by Ilena M. Bailey and Faith M. Williams, which was never published, and in the master's thesis "A study to determine the food habits of three hundred thirty-three families living in Grayson County, Virginia" by Willamay Toland Dean, (VPI Agicultural Economics, M.S. 1937), call no. LD5655.V855 1937.D436. Information gleaned from the study also seems to have been used in a number of other reports by federal agencies.
A related cooperative study of Grayson County farm organization and management was conducted in 1930/1931 by the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and the United States Bureau of Agricultural Economics. The findings of that study were published in Bulletin 304 of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station.
This collection contains the data collected during a 1931 cooperative study of Grayson County, Virginia farm families, conducted by the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Home Economics, including work conducted by Faith M. Williams and Ilena M. Bailey. The study collected data in such areas as family size, education, health, income and expenditures, employment, housing, food, clothing, and household furnishings and supplies. The collection includes data tabulated by category on worksheets, together worksheets containing the raw data (referred to within the collection as "cards"). The collection also contains a list of the study's personnel and the Grayson County families contributing data to the study. The families are numbered in the list, so that an individual family's data can be tracked through the cards and the tabulated worksheets. Also included in the collection are format outlines of the tabulated data and card formats to assist in interpreting the data.
The user should note that while entries are keyed to a unique number assigned to each family unit interviewed, the data is not always presented in numerical order. The user should also be aware that 0 is not used in the worksheets. The number 100, for example, is presented as 1[blank][blank]; 101 appears as 1[blank]1, and so forth.
The following materials are also available in Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA):
The published report resulting from this study may be found in Williams, Faith M. "Variations in Farm-Family Living" in Economic and Social Problems and Conditions of the Southern Appalachians . United States Dept. of Agriculture Misc. Publication No. 205, January 1935 (A1.38 201-217 Newman Docs / for photocopy, see Grayson County folder of the Southwest Virginia Vertical Files in SCUA).
The raw data collected for the related 1930/1931 report on Grayson County farm operations may be found in University Archives Record Group 25/1, Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Records. The report resulting from that study may be found in Vernon, J. J. et al. "A Study of the Organization and Management of Farms in Grayson County, Virginia." Bulletin (Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station) 304, June 1936. (call no. S123 E2 no. 304 Spec VPI).
Tabulations were also used in the production of the manuscript, "Rural Family Living in Grayson County, Va." by Ilena M. Bailey and Faith M. Williams, which was never published but is available from SCUA in an unprocessed addition, and in the master's thesis "A study to determine the food habits of three hundred thirty-three families living in Grayson County, Virginia" by Willamay Toland Dean, (VPI Agicultural Economics, M.S. 1937), call no. LD5655.V855 1937.D436).
The Records of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, RG 25/1, contains survey books and statistical surveys on farm operations in Grayson and other counties in Virginia from 1930 to 1940.
The following item was removed from the collection and added to the Historical Map Collection:
Map of Virginia... Showing Natural Resources and Principal 1928 Crop Acreages, Livestock Census, Etc. State Planters Bank and Trust Company (Richmond, VA), 1929. (Map-0729 in the Historical Map Collection)
The guide to the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia) by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).