General Files

Arranged by subject and thereunder chronologically. File list available.

The files document civilian defense activities typical of the World War II era. Many of them concern the various volunteer organizations operating under the U. S. Office of Civilian Defense (OCD), whose recommendations, regulations, and requests were transmitted to citizens through the Nevada State Council of Defense (NSCD). The volunteer organizations included: the Civil Air Patrol, U. S. Citizens' Defense Corps, U. S. Citizens' Service Corps, Junior Citizens' Service Corps, Aircraft Warning Service, and the Forest and Range Fire Fighters Service.

Other organizations working with the NSCD were the Red Cross, Boys Scouts, Girl Scouts, University of Nevada, American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The files contain incoming and outgoing correspondence, memoranda, and telegrams. Most of these communications are among the OCD, the NSCD, county and local councils of defense, and the councils of defense of other states. The NSCD was in communication with agencies and branches of the federal government other than the OCD, such as the Forest Service, Grazing Service, Soil Conservation Service, Office of Price Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the armed forces.

Among the other records are Enrollment for Civilian Defense cards, with which citizens indicated their willingness and availability to serve in the volunteer organizations and their qualifications for doing so.

There is also much printed matter: manuals and pamphlets (mostly issued by the OCD), posters, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, the NSCD's Defense News Letter, and typescripts of speeches (including radio addresses).

Major subjects of the files include transportation; communication (e.g., amateur radio); air raid defense (wardens, blackouts); medical services (e. g., first aid training); bomb reconnaissance and disposal; Japanese balloon bombs; chemical warfare (e. g., gas mask information); auxiliary police and fire protection; uniforms and insignia; rationing; victory gardens; nutrition information; food preparation and preservation; recreation; salvage collection (scrap metal, rubber, kitchen fats); disaster relief; child care; price controls; war bond sales; and the operation of Basic Magnesium, Inc., Nevada's only significant defense plant.

1941-1946

19 c.f.