RG 035, Connecticut Office of Price Administration

Inventory of Records

Finding aid prepared by Connecticut State Library staff.

Copyright © 2007 by the Connecticut State Library

Historical Note

The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was a Federal Government agency set up in August 1941 to aid in stabilizing prices, obtaining adequate production of essential items and preventing a post-war price collapse. It operated largely through rationing materials in short supply, establishing price and rent ceilings, and engaging in extensive public information activities. The agency set up nine regional offices, one of which was the New England office located in Boston. The Boston office set up the Connecticut branch office in December 1941, and in May 1942, Chester Bowles, future Connecticut Governor, became its director. The Connecticut office ran a rationing program, established price and rent ceilings, and engaged in various public information activities. Most records of the Connecticut state and local offices appear to have been destroyed. Most Connecticut OPA activity seems to have ceased by the fall of 1945.

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Scope and Content

This record group contains a rent survey chart, correspondence, memoranda, press releases, bulletins, speeches and radio scripts, subject files, records of the local Goshen office, and ration card applications for New Milford and New London. It also contains Broadcast scripts and Education Program records.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

These records are stored at an off-site facility and therefore may not be available on a same-day basis.

See the Rules and Procedures for Researchers Using Archival Records and Secured Collections policy.

Restrictions on Use

See the Reproduction and Publications of State Library Collections policy.

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Related Material

RG 005:029, Raymond E. Baldwin gubernatorial records, 1943-1945 (under "Office of Price Administration", "OPA", etc.)

RG 036, Temporary State Housting Rent Commission, 1942-1946

RG 050, War Council, 1940-1945.

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Index Terms

Organizations:

Persons:

Subjects:

Places:

Document Types:

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Administrative Information

Provenance

The State Library applied for the Goshen and West Haven OPA board records on July 30, 1945. On September 26, 1945, Mr. Dunn of the Connecticut OPA, State Headquarters notified Harold Burt, Examiner of Public Records that the board was closing on September 28th and the staff could pick up the records at that time. When T.D. Murphy, Director, War Records Department and Mr. Burt arrived, the OPA's clerk, Miss Phyllis H. Prindle, had taken all of the records out of the filing cases, and had indiscriminately stacked them in cartons of various sizes and shapes. She had taken the forms, correspondence, etc., out the identifying folders, which she evidently intended to destroy. Mr. Murphy, Mr. Burt and Mary West, an assistant in the War Records Department rescued the records. Since the 28th was Miss Prindle's last official day, Mr. Burt and Mr. Murphy did not ask her to return the documents to their original folders. They later attempted to establish some order after transferring the records to the State Library.

Education Programs records and broadcast scripts given by for OPA official Hugo Saglio who served as Radio Officer and Education Services Officer.

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