New Deal Accomplishment: Over 106 million books repaired


Above: These women are employed in the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA, 1933-1934). It's unclear how many school and library books CWA workers repaired, but it was certainly a very large number. Newspaper archives are filled with articles such as: "Library Assisted With CWA Money: 5,375 Books Repaired On Outlay of $742" (The Scranton Republican, Scranton, Pennsylvania, March 8, 1934, p. 7); "Women of CWA Repair 8,887 Books In County" (The Picket-Journal, Red Lodge, Montana, January 25, 1934, p. 1); and "20,000 School Books Cleaned and Repaired" (Reno Evening Gazette, Reno, Nevada, February 19, 1934, p. 10, noting CWA). Photo from: Henry G. Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann Publishers, 1934, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: Americans employed in the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) repaired at least 3,125,000 books. Photo and statistic from: The Emergency Work Relief Program of the FERA, April 1, 1934 - July 1, 1935 (1935).


Above: The description for this WPA photograph reads: "Bookmending exhibit of project 7036 (Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Maryland) at the Fifth Annual National Folk Festival held May 6th, 7th, and 8th, 1938, Constitutional Hall, Washington, D.C.." Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.


Above: The description for this WPA photograph, taken in Maryland between 1935 and 1943, reads in part: "The second step in bookmending is sewing through with clamp and drill when center sections of books are broken." Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.


Above: This photograph was taken on October 11, 1938, at the WPA's Manhattan Book Repair Shop at 53 West 23rd Street. Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers repaired 94,706,000 school and library books across the U.S. (Final Report on the WPA Program, p. 133). Photo from the National Archives.


Above: Another scene at the WPA book repair shop in Manhattan, 1938. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: A National Youth Administration (NYA) book repair project in Rayne, Louisiana, 1937. Young men and women in the NYA repaired over 8,900,000 books (NYA's final report, p. 174). The above newspaper clipping is part of the larger article, "Leche Gets $1,000,000 NYA Fund During His First Year," The Daily Progress (Hammond, Louisiana), May 14, 1937, p. 47. Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.


Above: You can still find books that have stamps and stickers indicating WPA repair work, such as this copy of William H. Elson's Elson Primary School Reader (Chicago, IL: Scott, Forseman and Company, 1912). Image scanned from a personal copy, 2025.


Above: Thanks to the WPA's repair work, children could read the many stories inside the Elson Primary School Reader, such as Taro and the Turtle, a Japanese tale about being kind to animals. Image scanned from a personal copy.


Above: A sticker showing WPA work on a copy of Howard Pyle's The Story of King Arthur and his Knights (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1903). Image scanned from a personal copy, 2025.

Putting Books Back Into Service!

If we add up the number of books that FERA, WPA, and NYA repaired (again, it's unclear how many CWA repaired), we can see that the New Deal repaired over 106 million books.

According to an article on the website of the American Bookbinders Museum, WPA repair work was more about practical use of books than long-lasting preservation (which, in the case of schools and libraries, is arguably the better approach, as these books were intended to be used as teaching tools and/or to instill a love of reading, not to end up as museum pieces): 

"WPA book repairers utilized a number of methods meant to return the books to service quickly, but without regard to the book’s long-term health. These methods included simple mending of torn pages, drilling holes using awls and sewing through the pages of books where the binding had completely fallen apart, cleaning soiled covers and pages, regluing pages to book spines, inserting typewritten pages where originals were missing, and rehousing volumes with conservation materials where covers were beyond repair. Sometimes they applied shellac to the edges of the printed pages as a preservative. In the case of school textbooks, most of which were in terrible condition, workers might cannibalize some copies in order to create complete books."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Deal Accomplishment: 1,383 new hospitals and treatment facilities

Image
Above: The New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding for the new and massive "Charity Hospital" in New Orleans, 1938. In total, PWA funded about 822 "hospitals and institutions for medical treatment" (Public Works Administration, America Builds: The Record of PWA , Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, p. 291 ). Photo from the National Archives . Above: Most Americans have forgotten, or have never been taught in the first place, or in some cases don't seem to care, how New Deal hospitals and health workers brought their parents or grandparents into the world, treated their injuries and broken bones, diagnosed their illnesses, provided the necessary facilities to perform life-saving surgeries, etc. The description for the photograph above reads, "Jackson Memorial Hospital, constructed by PWA in Miami, Florida. The picture shows the nursery room of the hospital." Photo from the National Archives . Above: This photo a...
Read more

New Deal Accomplishment: Over 4 million tons of food distributed to millions of Americans in need

Image
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...
Read more

New Deal Accomplishment: Over 4,400 Murals

Image
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...
Read more