U. S. War Industries Board Records

The War Industries Board (WIB) was a United States government agency established on July 28, 1917, during World War I, to coordinate the purchase of war supplies between the War Department (Department of the Army) and the Navy Department. Because the United States Department of Defense (The Pentagon) would only come into existence in 1947, this was an ad hoc construction to promote cooperation between the Army and the Navy with regard to procurement, it was founded by the Council of National Defense, which on its turn came into existence by the appropriation bill of August 1916. The War Industries Board was preceded by the General Munitions Board - which didn't have the authority it needed and was later strengthened and transformed into the WIB.