Introduction
"The New Deal" refers to a series of domestic
programs (lasting roughly from 1933 to 1939) implemented
during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt
to combat the effects of the Great Depression on the U.S.
economy. In addition to certain key economic programs, several
of the most prominent New Deal initiatives focused on providing
work relief to unemployed workers from all segments of U.S.
society--from unskilled laborers to highly skilled artists
and technicians. The projects in which these workers were
employed were as diverse as their backgrounds and extended
from public works projects--the construction of roads, buildings,
parks, tunnels bridges, to cultural documentation projects
carried out by writers, artists, historians, actors, and
musicians.
The Work Projects Administration (1935-43 - formerly Works
Progress Administration 1935-39) was the coordinating agency
for many of these diverse activities. According to the Final
Report on the WPA Program, 1935-1943, the WPA employed
as many as 8.5 million individuals throughout its
existence. The WPA was a large
and complex organization, and its diverse programs often
were coordinated at many different levels--by the Federal
government and, to varying degrees, by state, regional, and
local entities.
Four major cultural projects were initiated in the early
years of the WPA; in 1935 these projects were known collectively
as Federal One. These projects included the Federal Art Project
(1935-43), the Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939), the
Federal Music Project (1935-39, succeeded
by the WPA Music Program, 1939-43) and the Federal Writers'
Project (1935-39-with some activity continuing on state projects
until 1943).
Other prominent New Deal programs
included the Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-42), and the
the
Resettlement Administration (1935-36),
succeeded by the Farm Security Administration (1937-43).
Other central initiatives of Roosevelt's administration included
the creation of the Social Security Act (1935), the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) (1933), the National
Labor Relations Board (1935), the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) (1934), and the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) (1933--present).
The Library of Congress holds significant collections of
materials produced by Work Projects Administration (WPA)
cultural work relief programs and the Farm Security Administration-Office
of War Information, as well as publications produced by the
WPA and other Federal agencies throughout the New Deal period,
roughly 1933-39, and up through World War II. The collections
contain photographs, posters, oral history transcripts, sound
recordings, published and unpublished manuscript materials,
plays, design drawings, inventories, and indexes. The Library
also holds an extensive collection of secondary sources on
the period.
The classic essay "Amassing
American Stuff": the Library of Congress and the Federal
Arts Projects of the 1930s by John Y. Cole, Executive
Director of the Library's Center
for the Book, provides a helpful overview of New Deal
program materials in the Library of Congress's
collections.
Please send any corrections, additions, suggestions, and
comments to the Digital Reference Section.
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