CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
EN/FR
Search
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Office of Civilian Defense

US federal wartime agency 1941 to 1945

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 26, 2026
Entity authoritySource title only
Source-derived summary

The Office of Civilian Defense was a United States federal emergency war agency set up May 20, 1941, by Executive Order 8757 to co-ordinate state and federal measures for protection of civilians in case of war emergency. Its two branches supervised protective functions such as blackouts and special fire protection and "war service" functions such as child care, health, housing, and transportation. It also created the Civil Air Patrol. The agency was terminated by Executive Order 9562 of June 4, 1945. The Office of Civil Defense with similar duties was established later.

Editorial summary

“Office of Civilian Defense” enters the record as uS federal wartime agency 1941 to 1945. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Office, Civilian and Defense can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 1945—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Office, Civilian and Defense.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Office of Civilian Defense” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Office, Civilian and Defense provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The first chronological checks are 1941 and 1945.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Office of Civilian Defense”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Office of Civilian Defense primary sources, Office of Civilian Defense archive and Office research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Office of Civilian Defense”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Office of Civilian Defense” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.