Works Progress Administration

Seabrook Farm, Cannery Workers, Bridgeton, New Jersey,
John Collier, photographer, June 1942.
Voices from the Thirties
American Life Histories, 1936-1940

On April 8, 1935, Congress approved the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Created by President Franklin Roosevelt to relieve the economic hardship of the Great Depression, this national works program (called the Works Project Administration beginning in 1939) employed more than 8.5 million people on 1.4 million public projects before it was disbanded in 1943.

The Federal Writers' Project was one of several projects within the WPA targeted to people with skills in the arts. Among the well-known writers employed by the project were Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, May Swenson, Margaret Walker, and Richard Wright.

During the Project's early years, the Federal Writers produced a series of state guidebooks that offer a flavorful sampling of life in the United States. Now considered classics of Americana, these guides remain the Federal Writers' Project's best-known undertaking. But, the Federal Writers' Project also left a hidden legacy. In the late 1930s, Federal Writers recorded the life stories of more than 10,000 men and women from a variety of regions, occupations, and ethnic groups. Nearly 3,000 of these manuscripts are now available online as part of the American Memory collection American Life Histories, 1936-1940.

Search this collection on May Swenson, Ralph Ellison, and Nelson Algren to find interviews conducted by these famous writers. Or, select a state name to find interviews recorded in a region of your choice.

Costume Design for Dr. Faustus, staged by Orson Welles, New York City, 1937.
The New Deal Stage: Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939

For more on the Federal Writers' Project, view the special presentation Voices from the Thirties: Life Histories from the Federal Writers' Project, which includes stories and photographs of Americans during the Depression era.

Another arts-related project was the WPA Federal Theatre Project, which employed out-of-work actors, musicians, vaudevillians, and theater technicians in performances of classical and modern plays, such as Orson Welles' production of Macbeth.

The policy of government financing of theatrical productions stirred political controversy throughout the life of the project, and in 1939, Congress discontinued its funding.

• Production notebooks, playbills, posters, photographs, and stage and costume designs for three plays performed by the Federal Theatre acting units may be viewed online in the American Memory collection, The New Deal Stage: Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939.
• To learn more about the Library of Congress Federal Theatre Project Collection, view the special presentation Four Illustrated Articles. One of these articles, "Posters for the People," tells the story of the WPA's Federal Art Project, which started an aesthetic revolution with its dynamic poster designs.

  
  "Indian Art of the United States," exhibition poster, Pistchal, artist, New York.
  "Posters for the People"
  The New Deal Stage: Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939

• California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties is a multi-format ethnographic field collection that includes sound recordings, still photographs, drawings, and written documents from a variety of European ethnic and English- and Spanish-speaking communities in Northern California. The collection comprises 35 hours of folk music recorded in twelve languages representing numerous ethnic groups and 185 musicians. This elaborate New Deal project was organized and directed by folk music collector Sidney Robertson Cowell for the Northern California Work Projects Administration.
• The Federal Art Project (FAP) was another branch of the WPA. FAP targeted out-of-work visual artists for employment, and the objective of its eighteen or more poster divisions was to bring art into the daily lives of all Americans. Search on the keyword theater in Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 to see a particularly colorful set of WPA posters. Or browse the collection by Subject to see, for example, "Children's Drawings," a poster designed for an exhibition in Ohio; and "Flight," designed to advertise a living newspaper play in Seattle.