Skip to main content

United States War Relocation Authority. Poston, Arizona Relocation Center collection

 Collection
Call Number: MS 803

Scope and Contents

Scrapbooks, record books, and memorabilia chiefly relating to the educational and library activities at the Poston Relocation Center, an American concentration camp. Nine scrapbooks made and bound by the students cover topics of academic study as well as their memoirs documenting their accounts of being incarcerated. A printed yearbook is also included.

Dates

  • 1942-1945

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

The Poston High School Junior Red Cross Out of the Desert scrapbook in box 4 is available via digital surrogate, and the original scrapbook is restricted due to fragility. Patrons must use the digital surrogate instead of the original scrapbook.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Nathan Van Patten. Transferred from the War Collection, 1944.

Extent

6 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0803

Additional Description

Overview

Scrapbooks, record books, and memorabilia chiefly relating to the educational and library activities at the Poston Relocation Center, an American concentration camp. Nine scrapbooks made and bound by the students cover topics of academic study as well as their memoirs documenting their accounts of being incarcerated. A printed yearbook is also included.

Biographical / Historical

Poston Relocation Center was a War Relocation Authority (WRA) American concentration camp located in Yuma County (now La Paz County) in southwestern Arizona. The camp was established in 1942, and was the largest geographically of the ten American concentration camps operated by the WRA. Poston was built on the Colorado River Indian Reservation, despite the objections of the Tribal Council. Many of the incarcarees placed at Poston were sent directly there, as opposed to being filtered through a temporary detention center first. Poston's incarcarees came largely from farming areas in Central and Southern California, with a combined peak population of 17,000 people. Incarcaress carried out most of the labor required to keep the camp running, including growing a wide variety of crops in addition to raising chickens and hogs. Japanese American workers were instrumental in making the area more livable by clearing, preparing, and irrigating the land. The camp was closed in 1945 following the end of World War II.

Processing Information

This finding aid was revised in 2020 to address outdated or harmful descriptive language. During that revision, description was changed in the summary and scope and contents note for the collection. References to Japanese-American “relocation,” and “relocation center” during World War II were removed and replaced with community recommended and currently accepted terminology in 2020, such as “incarcerated” and "American concentration camp." Previous versions of this finding aid may be available. Please contact Manuscripts and Archives for details. If you have questions or comments about these revisions, please contact Manuscripts and Archives or the Archival and Manuscript Description Committee. For more information on reparative archival description at Yale, see Yale’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.

Subjects

Related Names

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the United States War Relocation Authority. Poston, Arizona Relocation Center Collection
Status
Under Revision
Author
compiled by Kathy Umbricht Straka
Date
June 1977
Description rules
Finding Aid Created In Accordance With Manuscripts And Archives Processing Manual
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Revision Statements

  • April 2021: Finding aid revised to replace outdated or harmful descriptive language. See the processing note for more information.

Repository Details

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

http://www.library.yale.edu/mssa/
Contact:
Yale University Library
P.O. Box 208240
New Haven CT 06520-8240 US
(203) 432-1735
(203) 432-7441 (Fax)

Location

Sterling Memorial Library
Room 147
120 High Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Suggest a Correction