Guides to Social Security History Archives
Note: The materials listed in this Catalog
are not available online. This is a listing of the materials available by
onsite research at SSA's History Archives in Baltimore. This Catalog is
provided to assist researchers in assessing whether an onsite visit to the
SSA History Archives holds potential benefit for their work.This Catalog
is an inventory of the holdings of the Archives. In most cases, it is not
a detailed description of the contents of individual folders, but only a
listing of the folders in a particular collection.
The SSA History Archives Catalog is grouped into 10 chapters, generally,
by collection and/or by where the material is stored. The reason for this
organization is because the main purpose of this Catalog is to assist researchers
in locating material here in our Archives. (The full printed version of
the Catalog is about 300 pages.) Using the "Find" function on
your Internet browser you can perform keyword searches against each of the
files, as well as browsing through the separate lists.
Chapter 1. Revolving Files
This is our main collection of foldered material. It contains folders on both people and topics.
Chapter 2. Flat Files
This is a collection of oversized materials such as posters and large photographs.
Chapter 3. Bookcases
The bookcases contain bound materials, either books or items in binders.
Chapter 4. Multi-Media Collections
This is our main collection of films, videotapes, audiotapes and photographs.
Chapter 5. Multi-Media Collections II
This is a special collection of CD-ROM based audio recordings from the 1960s and 1970s.
Chapter 6. CD/DVD Collections
This is a special collection of CD-ROMs and DVDs produced in-house. It contains scanned photos, audio and video clips.
Chapter 7. Lateral Files
These are special collections focused generally around the papers of particular individuals
Chapter 8. Offsite Storage
These are boxed materials not housed in our main reading room; they cover a wide range of subjects.
Chapter 9. The Mary Ross Papers
This is our largest special collection. It contains the papers of Mary Ross, with cover an enormous range of subjects from the mid-1960s through the mid-1990s.
Chapter 10. Advisory Councils & Commissions
These are are collections of documents related to the work of various Social Security advisory councils and special commissions.
Chapter 11: The Schlabach Papers
These are the Social Security-related papers of Professor Sheron Schlabach. They cover mainly research materials for his two books on Social Security.
Chapter 12: The Robert J. Myers Papers
This is a collection of the more than 1,000 published papers written by Robert Myers during his many years as a Social Security actuary