Warren Jay Vinton papers

Collection

Identifier: 2946

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Consists primarily of correspondence, memoranda, telegrams, minutes, reports, pamphlets, programs, newsletters, membership lists, reprints, speeches, press releases, broadsides, clippings, photographs, and copies of legislative hearings and bills documenting Vinton's active role in designing and implementing federal housing policies from 1935 to 1957. Most are administrative records produced during his tenure as Chief of Research in the Suburban Resettlement Division of the Resettlement Administration (1935-1937), Chief Economist and Planning Officer of the U.S. Housing Authority (1937-1949), and First Assistant Commissioner of the Public Housing Administration (1949-1957). Also included are records of the Central Housing Committee (1935-1942), on which Vinton represented the Resettlement Administration and later the U.S. Housing Authority, and of the Advisory Committee of the Bureau of the Census for the 1940 Federal Census of Housing. Papers concern many aspects of governmental activity in the public housing area, including low-income housing, defense housing, housing for the elderly, racial policy in public housing, and particularly the development and passage of housing legislation and congressional investigations of federal housing practices.

In addition to Vinton's own work, the papers document the work and opinions of many other planners, architects, housing experts, economists, federal administrators, and politicians, including Charles Abrams, Tracy B. Auger, Edmund N. Bacon, Catherine Bauer, Russell Van Nest Black, John B. Blandford, Jr., Lawrence N. Bloomberg, Walter H. Blucher, Ernest J. Bohn, Harry F. Byrd, Henry S. Churchill, Jacob L. Crane, Frank R. Creedon, Frederick A. Delano, Henry Ellenbogen, Herbert Emmerich, Raymond M. Foley, Philip M. Glick, Sergei N. Grimm, Justin Hartzog, Benjamin H. Higgins, John Ihlder, Leon H. Keyserling, Philip M. Klutznick, David L. Krooth, J.S. Lansill, Albert Mayer, Bleecker Marquette, Joseph R. McCarthy, Lewis Mumford, Dillon S. Myer, Charles F. Palmer, Horace W. Peaslee, Elbert Peets, Hugh R. Pomeroy, Don K. Price, Franklin D. Roosevelt, James W. Routh, Boris B. Shiskin, Charles E. Slusser, Clarence S. Stein, Nathan Straus, Rexford G. Tugwell, Sir Raymond Unwin, Robert F. Wagner, Jesse R. Wolcott, Edith E. Wood, Elizabeth Wood, Coleman Woodbury, and Wilson W. Wyatt. Also included are documents related to the work of municipal housing authorities, including those of Syracuse and New York, N.Y., Winston-Salem, N.C., Chicago, Ill., Washington, D.C.; activities of professional organizations, including the National Association of Housing Officials, National Housing Conference, and the American Society of Planning Officials; and Vinton's consulting work.

Dates

1932-1969.

Creator

Vinton, Warren Jay, 1889-1969. (Person)

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Warren J. Vinton received his A.B. from the University of Michigan in 1911. At age 21 he became secretary and director of the Vinton Company, then the largest general building contractors in Detroit. During World War I he served as an assistant attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. In 1928 he went to New York and worked for the American Association for Social Security, which did the groundwork for the eventual adoption of social security legislation. He also did graduate work in economics and statistics at Columbia University. In 1934 Vinton was appointed a field research supervisor with the newly formed Federal Housing Administration, where he developed the basic research techniques used in the first housing census done by the Census Bureau in 1940. When the Resettlement Administration was established in 1935, he was put in charge of economic and sociological studies for greenbelt towns and helped select the locations for three of them. From 1935-37 he assisted Senator Robert F. Wagner in drafting housing legislation which became the Wagner Act of 1937, and he later headed the social and economic studies which led to further public housing legislation adopted in 1949. He then became assistant commissioner of the new Public Housing Administration, where he remained until his retirement in 1957. He then became mayor of Somerset, Maryland, and retired in April, 1968.

Vinton belonged to, or was a board member of, the Washington Housing Association, the National Housing Conference, the American Society of Planning Officials, and the American Institute of Planners.

Extent

28 cubic feet. (28 cubic feet.)

Additional Description

Abstract

SERIES LIST

Series I. Greenbelt Towns, Resettlement Administration.

Card File and Printed Matter, 1936-1957. File listed alphabetically by name; articles listed alphabetically by title.

Boxes 15 and 24

Series II. Chief Economist.

Office Files [1934-1945]-1949 (1935-1937 in Resettlement Administration; 1937-1942 in U. S. Housing Authority; 1942-1949 in National Housing Authority)-comprised of those files listed on his office file folder listing that survived [Listed alphabetically by folder title]

Boxes 1-5, 7-8, 13, 14, 17, 18-20, 22, 24 and 28

Series III. Chief Economist

Supplemental Office Files, 1945-1949-files not included in original listing. Listed alphabetically

Boxes 1-3, 7, 9, 10, 12-14 and 17-20

Series IV. First Assistant Commissioner, Public Housing Authority, file, 1949-1957

Listed Alphabetically

Boxes 1, 10, 16, 17, 19, 20 and 23

Series V. Consultant Files 1957-1966. Listed Alphabetically

Boxes 1, 4, 13, 15, 20, 21, 23 and 24

Series VI. Miscellaneous Correspondence and Reports, Chronologically Arranged, 1935-1969

Boxes 18 and 20

Series VII. Subject Arrangement, 1941-1956

Boxes 1, 20, 23 and 27

Series VIII. Housing Legislation

Boxes 5, 6 and 27

Series IX. U.S. Housing Act Amendments

Boxes 6, 7, 21 and 27

Series X. Wanger, Ellender, Taft Bill, 1945-1946

Boxes 7, 8 and 27

Series XI. Wanger, Ellender-Taft Housing Act, 1947-1948

Boxes 9, 10, 22 and 27

Series XII. U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Housing, 1947-1948

Box 11

Series XIII. Housing Acts

Boxes 10, 11, 21, 22, 26 and 27

Series XIV. Warren Jay Vinton Speeches and Publications, 1936-1964, arranged by year

Box 16

Series XV. Articles, 1936-1964

Boxes 16, 17 and 23

Series XVI. Organizations and Conferences, 1949-1969

Boxes 15, 18, 25 and 26

Series XVII. Newspaper Clippings, 1935-1966

Box 23

Physical Description

Correspondence, memoranda, telegrams, minutes, reports, pamphlets, programs, newsletters, membership lists, reprints, speeches, press releases, broadsides, clippings, photographs, and copies of legislative hearings and bills.

General

Contact Information:: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 2B Carl A. Kroch Library Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 (607) 255-3530 Fax: (607) 255-9524 rareref@cornell.edu http://rmc.library.cornell.edu
Compiled by:: K. Jacklin
Date completed:: January 1988
EAD encoding:: Sarah KeatingMartin HeggestadPeter Martinez