New Deal Accomplishments

Above: From the Emergency Work Relief Program of the FERA, April 1, 1934 - July 1, 1935 . Above: WPA workers landscaped Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island. Photo from the National Archives . New Deal Landscaping Made America Beautiful It's difficult, and perhaps even impossible to measure the exact amount of landscaping the various New Deal agencies performed because it was measured alternately in acreage and linear miles (and the latter cannot be transferred into the former), and sometimes measured with little precision at all.  Nevertheless, by examining final reports of several New Deal agencies we can at least get a general idea of the scope and magnitude of the New Deal landscaping projects. The Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration landscaped "over a million acres of public grounds" (see first photo above). The WPA landscaped 211,240 acres of land (not including parks and roads) and 58,209 miles of roadside areas. The CCC repor...

Above: A WPA Housekeeping Aid helps care for a newborn "in a rural home near Brewton, Alabama," April 1939. Photo and quote from the National Archives . Above: A WPA Housekeeping Aid prepares lunch for two brothers from a low-income family in Washington, DC, August 1938. Photo from the National Archives . Above: A WPA Housekeeping Aid "teaches a small boy living in a three-room cabin, half a mile up the side of a hill, the correct way to brush his teeth," Catlettsburg, Kentucky, June 1938. Photo and quote from the National Archives . Above: A young mother receives hairstyling assistance from a WPA Housekeeping Aid, in Brighton, Massachusetts, between 1935 and 1943. The common good can make people smile!  Photo from the National Archives . Above: A WPA Housekeeping Aid serves a meal to a Minnesotan in need of a helping hand, August 1938. Photo from the National Archives . Above: A WPA Housekeeping Aid provides comfort to an elderly and "incurably ill"...

Above: A mural created by WPA artist Gustave Dalstrom, between 1935 and 1943, at the Laurel School kindergarten, Wilmette, Illinois. Photo from the National Archives . Above: A WPA mural to boost the spirits of kids convalescing at the Children's Hospital in Portland, Maine, 1936. Photo from the National Archives . Above: A WPA poster, promoting an exhibit of mural studies. Poster created between 1936 and 1937. Image from the Library of Congress . Above:  "Arrival of First Train in Herrington – 1885," a mural study for the post office building in Herrington, Kansas, created by Harry Louis Freund while he was in the New Deal's Section of Painting and Sculpture, ca. 1937. Image from the Smithsonian American Art Museum . 4,400+ Murals The New Deal sought to beautify America, tell its history, and cheer-up, educate, or inspire its people with numerous works of art, for example, murals placed in schools, hospitals, post offices, and other public buildings. Using reports...

Above: Federal surplus commodities being delivered to residents of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, in June 1941.  Photo by Edwin Rosskam, Farm Security Administration, courtesy of the Library of Congress . 4 Million+ Tons of Food The New Deal set up the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation (FSRC) in 1933 to purchase excess farm products (food, livestock, and goods) and then distribute them at no cost to low-income Americans. At the time, farms across the nation were producing too much and driving costs down to the point where many farmers couldn't make a living. Buying excess, and then distributing it to those in need-- people who weren't able to purchase much from the private sector and, in many cases, suffering from malnutrition --solved two problems simultaneously. In 1935, the FSRC was renamed "Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation" (FSCC), and then the FSCC was merged into the "Surplus Market Administration" (SMA) in June 1940. (See the Living New Deal's...