Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish material from the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia), must be obtained from Special Collections, Virginia Tech.

Preferred Citation

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia), Ms1940-023, Special Collections, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.

Acquisition Information

The Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia), was acquired by Special Collections prior to 1941. The collection was originally cataloged under the title "Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Polytechnic Institute Home Economics Study of Grayson County, Virginia Families."

Processing Information

The processing, arrangement, and description of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station Farm Family Study (Grayson County, Virginia), commenced and was completed in May, 2013.

Historical Note

A study 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. 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.

Scope and Content Note

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. 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 with worksheets containing the raw data (within the collection, these sheets are referred to 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 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.

Related Material

The published report resulting from this study may be found in Faith M. Williams' "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 Special Collections Southwest Virginia Vertical Files))

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 "A Study of the Organization and Management of Farms in Grayson County, Virginia" by J. J. Vernon et al. in Bulletin (Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station) 304, June 1936. (S123 E2 no. 304 VPI Spec)

Separated Material

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.

Index Terms

Subjects:

• Local/Regional History and Appalachian South
• University Archives
• Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College and Polytechnic Institute

Geographical Names:

• Grayson County (Va.)

Adjunct Descriptive Data