New Deal Accomplishment: 8,000,000 Christmas toys for children in need


Above: A WPA worker in New Orleans making doll furniture for Christmas distribution, between 1935 and 1942. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: WPA workers at "Fire Station No. 15," repairing toys for Christmas distribution, St. Paul, Minnesota, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: An unemployed carpenter, now working in the WPA, repairs toys at Fire Station No. 15 (see previous photo). The WPA did its best to match the skills of the unemployed to available relief jobs - and what better match than a carpenter making wooden toys for children in need during the holidays? Photo from the National Archives.


Above: Two WPA workers at Fire Station No. 15 (see previous two photos) repaint used toys - a race car and steam shovel. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: WPA worker Roy Bridgeman, refurbishing a toy at the Peabody School, Minneapolis, Minnesota, between 1935 and 1942, "for distribution to needy children at Christmas time by the Child Welfare Department of the Board of Education." Quote and photo from the National Archives.


Above: At this WPA toy shop in New York City, workers are putting surplus cotton in stuffed toys, "for distribution to needy children at Christmas time," between 1935 and 1942. Quote and photo from the National Archives.


Above: In addition to Christmas toys, the WPA operated toy lending centers throughout the entire year, and in many cities and towns across nation, for children who didn't have as many play opportunities as other children. The lending center above is in Chicago, 1935-1943. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: The New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA) also operated toy lending projects, such as this toy library in Westfield, New Jersey, 1935-1943. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: This is from the NYA's final report, p. 173, and gives us a general idea of the scope and operation of its toy projects.


Above: This photo, taken in New Orleans, ca. 1939, shows children from lower-income families looking over donated toys at a WPA toy lending center. The toys could be checked out, just like library books, and then returned. "At Christmas, however, the center plays the role of Santa Claus, taking gifts to many boys and girls to whom otherwise Christmas would be just another day." Quote and photo from the National Archives.


Above: In addition to distributing repaired toys and lending donated toys, the WPA produced its own toys, as seen in this toy-making project in Houston, Texas, 1939. Activities such as this were not seen as overly infringing on the private sector because the clients of such services were not participating in the private market in a significant way (to put it simply, they couldn't afford to). Photo from the National Archives.


Above: WPA sewing room workers contributed significantly to the production and repair of toys, both at Christmas and throughout the year. These workers are at a WPA toy-mending shop, 475 Tenth Avenue, New York City, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.


Above: Another scene at the WPA toy-mending shop in New York City (see previous photo). WPA toy projects offered employment to many, especially as Christmas approached, with as many as 50,000 WPA workers producing, collecting, repairing, and distributing toys ("1,500,000 Toys Rise From Trashpile To Make Needy Happy At Xmas Times," The Chicago Defender (Chicago, Illinois), December 24, 1938, p. 7). Photo from the National Archives.


Above: This is part of a much longer newspaper article, in the Trenton Sunday Times-Advertiser (Trenton, New Jersey), December 20, 1936, telling the incredible story of 13-year-old Richard Dawson, of Hightstown, New Jersey, and his friends, who learned woodworking skills in a WPA course; then created the "Richard Dawson Christmas Club"; and then solicited the help of the WPA to start a project to collect and repair toys for distribution to the less fortunate - "[Dawson] knew some boys and girls who never seemed to have very many playthings." The older man you see--in the photo at bottom right--is John Dieffenbach, a WPA carpenter assigned to supervise the program. Dear Hollywood: This would make a great Christmas movie! Image from newspapers.com, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

New Deal Santa

Cumulative statistics for New Deal toy projects were not well-calculated and/or well-reported in government reports. So, with respect to the production, repair, and distribution of toys for Christmas, the main subject of this blog post, we can try to piece together what happened (i.e., volume) by way of old newspaper accounts. Though the New Deal's toy projects seem to have started in earnest under the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)--and we're also carried out by the National Youth Administration (NYA)--nationwide totals could only be found for WPA:  

1935: About 1 million toys distributed by WPA workshops ("Work-Relief Wages Bring Millions Joy," United Press article, in the Indianapolis Times (Indianapolis, Indiana), December 25, 1935, p. 1).

1936: 725,000 ("Moments in Washington," The Indianapolis News (Indianapolis, Indiana), December 25, 1936, p. 7). 

1937: 1,500,000 ("WPA Toys: 1,500,000 Presents Ready for Yule," Washington Herald-Times (Washington, DC), December 19, 1937, p. 8).

1938: 1,500,000 ("1,500,000 Toys Rise From Trashpile To Make Needy Happy At Xmas Time," The Chicago Defender (Chicago, Illinois), December 24, 1938, p. 7).

1939: 1,500,000 ("WPA Workers Make Holiday Toys," Associated Press article, in Council Bluffs Nonpareil (Council Bluffs, Iowa), December 12, 1939, p. 13)

1940: 2,000,000 ("2,000,000 WPA Toys," Associated Press article, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri), December 15, 1940, p. 17C).

1941 and 1942: Nationwide statistics could not be found. Newspaper articles indicate that production dropped off significantly for these two Christmas seasons, mainly because defense-related and private sector employment began reducing the number of workers on the WPA payroll, as well as the number of families in need of assistance. The articles suggest that WPA toy production, repair, and distribution were still noteworthy in 1941, but probably running on fumes during the holiday season of 1942. For example, there is a 1941 Associated Press article reporting that 160,000 WPA toys would be distributed in New Jersey (The Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), December 17, 1941); a 1941 article noting that 14 WPA toy centers were operating in Montana ("State Toy Projects Have Finished Big Job," Fergus County Argus (Lewistown, Montana), December 25, 1941, p. 5); and a story in 1942--among much fewer newspaper articles on the subject--reported that children in Hartford, Connecticut would be receiving 7,000 WPA toys for Christmas ("City Has 7,000 WPA Toys For Yule Distribution," The Hartford Courant, December 17, 1942, p. 4).

Using just the WPA statistics from 1935 through 1940, we see that the New Deal produced, repaired, and distributed over 8 million Christmas toys to underprivileged children. The totals from FERA, NYA, and the last two years of WPA would likely raise this total to well over 10 million.

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