What is on a social security number application?

I just managed to find my Great-Grandmother’s social security number and I am wondering what I could learn if I sent for a copy of the original application.

Potentially, you would get the full (first, middle, last) names of her parents, including her mother's maiden name. You'd also likely see her signature. There's a slight possibility you might get her employer's name, if she was working at the time.

And you'd get her sex and race.

Her birth name, birth date, birthplace, parent's names (and mother's birth name), her residence at time of application, sex, race, where card was issued, death date.

If she was a naturalised citizen, her application should include her citizenship status.

Thank you both, most of that information I have but learning where she lived and if she could write would be interesting to know.

Race is what I am looking for and it would be interesting to see what she claimed. I was told she was half American Indian but I know enough history and genealogy to understand that claiming Indian status was very often to hide African ancestry. As best as I can determine she came from southeastern Kentucky, an area where people went after escaping. Indentured whites and Africans fled bondage and American Indians escaped relocation and genocide. They fled into the hill and formed communities that my anthropology professors call ‘tri-racial isolates’. It has been 15 years since I did any serious research on her but now I am taking a history class on race and ethnicity and one of the assignments is to write a paper on how race affected one of our ancestors. My professor that that she would be the most interesting of the possibilities I suggested and now I am trying to some more facts assembled.

I am hoping that the digitization of records since I last looked for her will help me uncover some facts. My problem has been that poor families don’t leave much of a trail to follow.