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Civilian Conservation Corps Collection
MSS.2010.07.29  
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Description
The materials in this collection consist of photographs, newspaper articles, original newspapers, memorabilia, oral history cassette tapes, memorial calendars, and alumni association publications related to California camps and one Oregon camp.
Background
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was created in 1933 as one of the first programs headed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) to alleviate youth unemployment during the Great Depression. Young men, ages 18 to 24 provided unskilled manual labor supporting reforestation and building the National Parks System. The Department of Labor recruited the men into the program and set up the outdoor camps they would be living at. Upon joining, they were provided clothing by the U.S. Army which also managed the camps. Over three million young men joined the CCC in the nine years it was active. They were paid one dollar per day and were offered free room and board. Members of the CCC became known as FDR's "Tree Army" and worked to revitalize the nation's forests and parks by planting trees, setting up state parks, and building roads that connected parks. They built more than 1000 national, state, county and city parks and planted over three billion trees across the nation. To this day, the CCC remains the only government conservation program that worked to save our country's environment on a national scale. There were CCC camps located in every state in the U.S.
Extent
3 boxes (3.5 Linear feet)
Restrictions
Copyright is not assigned to the San José State University Special Collections & Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Special Collections & Archives. Copyright restrictions may apply to digital reproductions of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.
Availability
Collection is open for research. Photocopying of original Newspapers is prohibited due to their fragile nature.