New Deal Accomplishments

Above: "Deer and Fawn," a sculpture by Louise Pritchard (1912-1965), created while she was in the WPA, 1937. You can learn more about Pritchard , " Dear and Fawn ," and a companion piece, " Cougar and Cub ," on the website of the University of Oregon. Photo from the National Archives . Above: "Miner's Son," a sculpture by Bernard Walsh (1912-2004), created while he was in the WPA, between 1935 and 1940. Walsh also created at least one animal sculpture for the Herman Biggs Memorial Hospital in Ithaca, New York. The sculpture was part of a set that was recently restored and is now located at the Cayuga Medical Center, also in Ithaca (" WPA sculptures receive a facelift ," Tomkins Weekly , May 31, 2016). Photo courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum and the General Services Administration . Above: The description for this photograph, taken in Boston, Massachusetts, between 1935 and 1943, reads, "WPA wood carver carving a panel for an E...

Above: "Hunger," an artwork by Richard V. Correll (1904-1990), created while he was in the WPA, between 1935 and 1943. Image from the Art Institute of Chicago . Above: The description for this 1939 photograph reads, "First printing of food stamps. Washington, D.C., April 20. Food stamps, the latest in the administration's plans to reduce the farm surplus, came off the presses today at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Of [orange] and blue, the stamps will be issued to persons on relief who will be able to cash each one dollar stamp for food worth a dollar and fifty cents. Imogene Stanhope, printer's assistant at the Bureau, is pictured pulling the first batch off the press." Photo from the Library of Congress . Above: A pair of original 1939 food stamps, from the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation . A person qualifying for food assistance would buy orange stamps at face value and then receive half as much more in blue stamps. The orange stamps co...

Above: Articles featuring Walter Donaldson, of Orlando, West Virginia, started popping up all across the country in 1938 and 1939. Donaldson was the one-millionth person who learned how to read and write in WPA literacy classes. The excerpt above is part of a larger photo story in the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio), May 8, 1938. Image from newspapers.com , used here for educational and non-commercial purposes . Above:  Walter Donaldson, learning how to read and write, March 31, 1938.  Photo from the National Archives . Above: Walter Donaldson's children watch him write a letter, while his wife prepares a meal, March 31, 1938. If you look closely, and compare this photo to the previous photo, it seems that Mrs. Donaldson was also a student in the WPA literacy course. Photo from the National Archives . Above: This photograph and description card highlights the importance of the WPA to the entire country. Donaldson not only learned to read and write in the WPA, which helped...

Above: The Civil Works Administration had about 40,000 projects to build or improve schools (Harry Hopkins, Spending to Save , 1936, p. 121, and Bonnie Fox Schwartz, The Civil Works Administration, 1933-1934: The Business of Emergency Employment in the New Deal , 1984, p. 183). Improvements included painting, additions, repairs and, as shown above, grading and landscaping. The photo above was taken in Somerset County, Maryland, between 1933 and 1934.  Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives . Above: This high school, in Utuado, Puerto Rico, was repaired and expanded with funds from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), ca. 1934. Between 1934 and 1935, the Work Division of FERA built 1,530 new school buildings and had another 31,418 projects to improve existing school buildings. Photo from a report of FERA activities in Puerto Rico . Above: Another school in Puerto Rico, this one built by the New Deal's Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administratio...

Above: A school lunch in Kentucky, provided by the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA), between 1933 and 1934.  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: A WPA school lunch in Lawrence County, Tennessee, March 1936. The Final Report on the WPA Program noted that "One of the valuable contributions of the [school lunch] program to community welfare was the establishment, in rural areas, of efficient methods of operation of school lunch rooms and the development of high standards of sanitation in regard to the supply and handling of food and water."  Photo from the National Archives . Above: Children at the Lawrence County school in Tennessee (see previous photo), after their WPA lunch, March 1936. Photo from the National Archives . Above: This newspaper excerpt highlights the improv...