New Deal Accomplishment: 177 new museums, and thousands of projects to expand, improve, or assist museums

Above: The Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, built in 1938 by WPA workers, many of whom were Osage. At the time of its opening it was described as "The only tribal museum in the United States," and among its collection was "a group of portraits of well-known Osages... done as a WPA project by Todros Geller, Chicago artist" (U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, "Osage Indian Museum Dedicated May 2-3," Indians at Work, June 1938, p. 24). The museum still operates today. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A new art museum for Boise, Idaho, built by WPA workers (and perhaps NYA workers too), 1937. The building and museum still operate today, larger in size, and creating " visual arts experiences that engage people and inspire learning through exceptional exhibitions, collections, and educational opportunities." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Tuzigoot Museum, at the Tuzigoot National Monument, Arizona, 1937. This building was built by the WPA and displayed artifacts that had been excavated by the New Deal's Civil Works Administration (CWA) several years earlier. The museum still operates today. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The Audubon Museum in Henderson, Kentucky, built by the WPA, 1937-1938. This building and museum still operate today, as part of the larger John James Audubon State Park. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The New Deal not only constructed new museums, but also improved many museums by expanding their facilities, remodeling interior spaces, making repairs, painting, etc. The article above highlights a large new wing added to the Baltimore Museum of Art, with funding from the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA). It comes from Museum News (a publication of the American Association of Museums), January 15, 1937, p. 1. Image scanned from a personal copy, and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The New Deal also provided funds for museums to hire unemployed workers to classify, catalog, and index their collections, as this WPA worker is doing with a recent gift to the Natural History Museum in San Diego, California, 1937. These types of workers were often professionals in the field of history, archaeology, museums, etc., who had lost their jobs during the Great Depression. In its first three years of operation, the WPA cataloged 9,498,000 artifacts. Between 1937 and 1942, the New Deal's National Youth Administration (NYA) "catalogued 1,123,000 museum articles." Photo from the National Archives.

Above: WPA workers also created items for museums, such as dioramas, models of ships and buildings, and figurines of historically important people and cultures. These items were displayed in museums, and also loaned out to schools and libraries as part of "museum extension" projects. The description for this photograph--taken in Washington, DC, 1938--reads: "Hand carved wooden dolls representing famous characters of fiction and history are part of the display of the WPA exhibition of skills of the unemployed in the National Museum. These dolls [are from] a Minnesota Handicraft project and are used as visual education models in schools, libraries and museums. In the picture is shown 'Robin Hood.'" Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Pennsylvania had one of the most active WPA museum extension projects. By 1940, it had 33 units, employing 2,000 people, and had created 1.5 million visual aids for public schools, including, "plates of costumes and uniforms, dioramas, architectural models, geological and industrial miniature models, food models, games, maps, native handicraft and handicraft designs, lantern slides, fish plaques, marionettes and puppets, and handbooks and pamphlets" (Museum News, September 15, 1940, p. 2). Pictured above is one of the project's architectural models, "Italian Gothic, 14th Century, Taormina." Photo by Brent McKee.

Above: A WPA worker making a model of the "HMS Discovery" (a ship used in early explorations of America's west coast) for a museum in Washington state, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: WPA workers arranged exhibit spaces and constructed display cabinets for many museums, like the area and cabinets shown above at the U.S. Army Aeronautical Museum (now called the National Museum of the United States Air Force) in Dayton, Ohio, ca. 1938. Photo from the National Archives.

New Deal-Created Museums

Below is a list of 177 museums created by the New Deal, either through new construction or through the renovation and/or conversion of an existing structure into a new museum (e.g., a historic home). The list is not complete (or perfectly made) and it does not include the large number of existing museums that were expanded, improved, or assisted by the New Deal (recall the 1937 article above on the expansion of the Baltimore Museum of Art). Instead, the list is intended to be a fairly good inventory of new museums created by the New Deal; and perhaps it will spark an interest in further research, as well as more sophisticated and comprehensive cataloging.

(It's interesting to note that many New Deal structures that did not start out as museums, for example post office buildings constructed in the 1930s and 40s, are providing museum space today. See, e.g., the Living New Deal's project page, "Sturgis Motorcycle Museum (Old Post Office) - Sturgis SD.") 

For sources of information on any particular museum, or if you see any errors, please email me at bmckee383@gmail.com.

Museums 1-88: 

Before the New Deal, there were no more than 27 museums operated by the National Park Service. By the end of fiscal year 1941, there were 115, an increase of 88 (this progression is detailed in the Dept. of Interior's annual reports, 1934-1941). These new museums were constructed with public works funds (e.g., PWA and CCC) and constructed at places such as Morristown National Historical Park (New Jersey); Colonial National Historical Park (Virginia); Ocmulgee National Monument (Georgia); White Sands National Monument (New Mexico); Mesa Verde National Park (Colorado); and Vicksburg National Military Park (Mississippi).

Museums 89-177 (organized by state; description starts with New Deal agency responsible for construction):

Alabama: CCC, Moundsville Museum, new construction

Arizona: CCC-Indian Division, Kinishba Ruins museum building, Gila County, new construction

Arizona: CWA, FERA, Smoki Museum (now called Museum of Indigenous People), Prescott, new construction

Arizona: CWA, FERA, WPA, Sharlot Hall Building (main museum bldg in 11 bldg complex), Prescott, new construction

Arizona: PWA, University of Arizona Museum, Tucson, new construction

Arkansas: WPA, Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, new construction

California: CCC, Summit Museum, Mt. Diablo, Contra Costa County, new construction

California: WPA, Asistencia Mission museum bldg, Redlands, reconstruction project 

California: WPA, Lakeport Museum, Lakeport, new construction

Colorado: PWA, University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, Boulder, new construction

Connecticut: CCC, Peoples Forest Museum, Barkhamsted, new construction

District of Columbia: PWA, Interior Museum, part of the new U.S. Dept. of the Interior bldg, new construction

Florida: CCC, Fort Clinch State Park, museum area in restored building

Idaho: WPA, Boise Art Museum, Boise, new construction

Illinois: CCC, Blackhawk State Park museum, Rock Island, new construction

Indiana: CCC, Jackson-Washington State Forest Museum Building, new construction

Indiana: PWA, Indiana World War Memorial (with areas designed for museum space when

funds available), Indianapolis, new construction

Kansas: PWA, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, new construction

Kentucky: WPA, Audubon Museum, near Henderson, new construction

Kentucky: WPA, home of Ephraim McDowell, Danville, restoration into a house museum

Kentucky: WPA, McDowell-Crawford Memorial Shrine, Danville, restoration into a house museum

Louisiana: PWA, Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, Shreveport, new construction

Maine: WPA, Nylander Museum, Caribou, new construction

Maryland: CCC, Fort Frederick State Park museum building, new construction

Maryland: WPA, Flag House, Baltimore, restored into a house museum

Maryland: WPA, Rossborough Inn, historic house museum, College Park, restored into a house museum

Michigan: WPA, Grand Rapids Furniture Museum, Grand Rapids, new construction (within existing bldg)

Michigan: WPA, Grand Rapids Public Museum, new construction

Michigan: WPA, Niles Historical Museum, Niles, new construction (altering an existing barn)

Minnesota: PWA, Minnesota Museum of Natural History, St. Paul Campus, University of Minnesota, new construction

Minnesota: WPA, Lindbergh home converted into museum, Little Falls

Missouri: PWA, Soldiers’ Memorial Building (with two interior museums), St. Louis, new construction

Missouri: WPA, Mark Twain Museum, Hannibal, new construction

Montana: NYA, log cabin museum and tourist information, Billings (HWY 87, near Midlands Empire Fairgrounds), new construction

Montana: NYA, Montana Cowboys Association Museum, Great Falls, new construction

Montana: PWA, “library-museum,” Montana School of Mines, new construction

Montana: PWA, Museum of the Plains Indians, Browning, new construction

Montana: PWA, University of Montana Art Museum, Missoula, new construction

Montana: WPA, Indian Caves Museum, Billings, new construction

Nebraska: NYA, Bridgeport Museum, Bridgeport, new construction

Nebraska: NYA, D.A.R. Museum, Kelley Park, McCook, new construction

Nebraska: WPA, Franklin City Park Museum, Franklin, new construction

Nebraska: WPA, Hastings Municipal Museum, Hastings, new construction

Nebraska: WPA, Old Settlers Park Museum, Scottsbluff, new construction

New Jersey: Cheesequake State Park Museum, new construction

New Jersey: CWA, Dey Mansion, Wayne, restored into a house museum

New Jersey: CWA, FERA, WPA, Trent House Museum, Trenton, restored home into a museum

New Jersey: WPA, Steuben House, River Edge, restored into a house museum

New Mexico: WPA, Coronado Museum, Coronado State Monument, new construction

New Mexico: WPA, Lincoln County Courthouse, restored with exhibition of relics from Billy the Kid era

New Mexico: WPA, Roosevelt County Museum, campus of Eastern New Mexico College, Portales, new construction

New York: FERA, Staten Island Historical Society Museum, New York City, renovation and restoration of an existing bldg into a new museum  

New York: FERA, WPA, Stony Point Museum, Stony Point, new construction

New York: On land donated by FDR and his mother, FDR Presidential Museum & Library, Hyde Park, new construction

New York: WPA, NYA, Schenectady Museum, remodeling donated buildings into new museum

North Carolina: CWA, FERA, WPA, Mint Museum Randolph, Charlotte, new construction (a reconstruction of a soon-to-be demolished building)

North Carolina: PWA, Hall of History, Winston-Salem, new construction  

North Carolina: WPA, Highlands Museum and Biological Laboratory, Highlands, new construction

North Dakota: CCC, Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park, near Mandan, new construction

North Dakota: CCC, Fort Lincoln State Park Museum, new construction

Ohio: NYA, Schoenbrunn Park Museum, New Philadelphia, new construction

Ohio: WPA, Fort Recovery Museum bldg (part of larger restoration project), new construction

Ohio: WPA, Hanby House Museum, Westerville, restoring into a house museum

Oklahoma: WPA, Osage Nation Museum, Pawhuska, new construction

Oklahoma: WPA, Sequoyah’s Cabin Museum, Sallisaw, new construction (stone bldg around historic cabin)

Pennsylvania: NYA, Caledonia State Park museum, new construction

Pennsylvania: NYA, Martin’s Cabin – Nature Museum, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh, reconstruction of historic cabin

Pennsylvania: WPA, William Penn Estate restoration, Bucks County, restoration

South Dakota: WPA, Rapid City Historical Museum, new construction

South Dakota: WPA, School of Mines Museum / Library / Admin. Building, Rapid City, new construction

Texas: NYA, La Villita, San Antonio, restoration of area into a “permanent museum” village, including the Bolivar Museum building

Texas: PWA, Big Bend Memorial Museum, Alpine, new construction

Texas: PWA, Dallas Museum of Natural History, Dallas, new construction

Texas: PWA, Gonzales Memorial Museum, Gonzales, new construction

Texas: PWA, San Jacinto Monument (including museum area), Houston, new construction

Utah: WPA, Pioneer Museum, Provo, new construction

Utah: WPA, Springville Art Museum, Springville, new construction

Virginia: PWA, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, new construction

Washington: CCC, Ginkgo Petrified Forest State Park trailside museum, Ellensburg, new construction

West Virginia: CCC, Hawks Nest State Park, Ansted, new construction

West Virginia: NYA, West Virginia State College Museum of Negro History, Institute, new construction

Wisconsin: WPA, Children’s Museum (part of Milwaukee Public Museum), Milwaukee, remodeled existing building into a new museum 

Wisconsin: WPA, Door County Historical Museum, Sturgeon Bay, new construction

Wisconsin: WPA, Douglas County Historical Society Museum, Superior, new construction (altering an existing non-museum bldg)

Wisconsin: WPA, Kenosha Historical and Art Museum, Kenosha, moved and remodeled post office bldg into a new museum

Wisconsin: WPA, NYA, Villa Louis Museum, Prairie du Chien, restoring old structure into a museum

Wyoming: CCC, Guernsey Lake Museum, new construction

Wyoming: CCC, Guernsey State Park museum bldg, new construction

New Deal Accomplishment: 550 new communities

Above: The Williamsburg Houses, Brooklyn, New York, a public housing project financed by the New Deal's Public Works Administration (PWA), 1936-1938. This was one of at least 51 housing communities built with PWA funding, and also one of the largest, most successful, and enduring ones. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The description for this photograph--taken in Brooklyn, 1937--reads in part, "Here is a family looking over the living room of one of the ultra-modern [Williamsburg Houses], a far cry from the crowded and outmoded tenements they will replace." Associated Press photo, scanned from a personal copy and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: This 1937 photo shows one of the first tenants of Williamsburg Houses and reads, "Mrs. P. Berkowitz as she [cooks] the first meal to be prepared in their new home on one of the electric stoves with which the apartments are furnished. She says she is 'very much tickled' with her new home and the stove in particular." Photo is credited "Ref. Dept., 10-5-37, N.E.A.," scanned from a personal copy and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: A house at Tygart Valley Homesteads, West Virginia, one of about 34 communities created by the New Deal's Subsistence Homesteads Division, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1933-1935. Photo by Carol Denney, 2019.

Above: A history marker at Tygart Valley Homesteads, West Virginia. Photo by Brent McKee, 2019.

Above: A house at Dyess Colony, Arkansas, one of 28 communities created by the New Deal's Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), ca. 1934-1935. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: New Deal-created communities often included health clinics, schools, grocery stores, farm buildings, and more. The building above is a trading post at Dyess Colony, Arkansas. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A WPA poster advertising Valleyview Homes in Ohio, a public housing community created by the New Deal's United States Housing Authority (USHA), ca. 1940. The Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority was one of many local housing authorities set up to administer USHA funding. By the end of fiscal year 1941, USHA had financed 399 public housing projects. Many of these projects, along with public housing projects constructed after the New Deal, fell into disrepair, economic hopelessness, and crime. But there were many success stories too: "The legacy of public housing in the United States is a complex one. Its failures have been terrible and widely heralded; its successes, which are much more the norm, are mostly overlooked" (Edward G. Goetz, New Deal Ruins: Race, Economic Justice, & Public Housing Policy, Cornell University, 2013, p. 189.) Image from the Library of Congress.

Above: Children cooling off at the Jane Addams Homes, Chicago, ca. 1939. This public housing project was financed by PWA but later administered by USHA. Photo by Peter Sekaer, USHA, and provided courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: Willert Park Courts, an African American public housing community in Buffalo, New York, financed by USHA and completed in 1939. New Deal housing projects are frequently evaluated and reflected upon by modern critics as tools for displacing African Americans, discriminating against them, and promoting segregation. However, while there is certainly plenty of blame to go around for America's apartheid history, the criticism leveled at the New Deal is overblown and the history more complex. For example, the program guide for the 1940 American Negro Exposition reported that "Survey after survey has indicated that great masses of Negroes are living in substandard dwellings for which they are compelled to pay high rents. They have not been able to get out of these slums and blighted areas, because decent, safe and sanitary homes have not been available to them at rentals within their reach. Throughout the Nation, local housing authorities are trying to meet this problem with the cooperation and financial assistance of the USHA... Of the 400 [USHA] projects, at least 177 will be wholly or partially occupied by Negro families." Photo from the Library of Congress.

Above: Workers constructing Greenbelt, Maryland, under supervision of the New Deal's Resettlement Administration (RA), 1936. Across the country, there were about 37 new communities built by the RA. Photo by Carl Mydans, RA and Farm Security Administration, courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: A history display at the Greenbelt Community Center, 2011. New Deal communities were frequently criticized as hideous attempts at communism, but many residents appreciated the affordable housing and ended up having great memories of living in their respective communities. Photo by Brent McKee, 2011.

Above: The remarkable El Falansterio, constructed by the New Deal's Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) in 1937. It was one of many New Deal housing and homestead projects in Puerto Rico, and included "a completely staffed social service center with recreation rooms, reading rooms, a kindergarten, an auditorium and a first grade school room. There is also a full-time nurse and a part-time doctor available to the tenants." Quote and photo from the PRRA publication, Rehabilitation in Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR: Imprenta Venezuela, 1939.

Above: The beautifully-designed balconies on the El Falansterio. The housing development was "a group of three-story art deco buildings in Puerta de Tierra comprising 216 apartments of reinforced concrete designed to withstand earthquakes, hurricanes, and fires... Apartments included two bedrooms, an indoor bathroom with a shower, an indoor kitchen, and clean drinking water" (Geoff G. Burrows, The Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration: New Deal Public Works, Modernization, and Colonial Reform, University of Florida Press, 2024, p. 96). Today, the El Falansterio is on the National Register of Historic Places. Photo by Ian Poellet, provided by Wikimedia Commons, and used here under the CCA-SA 4.0 International License.

Above: The Community Center Building of the El Falansterio. "Falansterio" comes from the French word "Phalanstery," which means "building or buildings occupied by a community living together and having goods and property in common." Photo credited to the "Office of Resident Commissioner," and taken from the Falansterio's National Register of Historic Places material.

Above: WPA workers putting together a pre-fabricated home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, ca. 1938, part of a larger WPA low-cost housing project sponsored by the Fort Wayne Housing Authority (but probably not funded through USHA). The homes were based on a model created by Frank Watson and J. Stanley Young, "The material for each house cost about $900 [about $21,000 in 2025 dollars]... The new, four-room, low-cost house is simplicity itself. One room (20 x 12 ft.) serves as living room, dining room, and kitchen; is equipped with a porcelain sink and a coal--and wood--fired stove for cooking and heating purposes. A 4 x 8 1/2 ft. bathroom contains a wash basin, water closet, 30 gal. hot water heater and stubby tub. Two 12 x 7 ft., 8 in. bedrooms complete with living accommodations for a family of four. Well-studied fenestration [design and placement] and room arrangement afford adequate light and cross ventilation in each major room" ("The WPA Made This... To Replace This," The Hancock Democrat (Greenfield, Indiana), December 8, 1938). Photo from the National Archives.

The New Deal Affordable Housing Foundation

"Within 3 short years more was accomplished by PWA to establish good public housing for the underprivileged in the United States than had been brought about in the preceding three centuries."

(Public Works Administration, America Builds: The Record of PWA, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1939, p. 208). 

The New Deal built at least 550 communities for Americans in need of housing assistance (see captions above). The construction of these new communities reflected FDR's belief that every family should have the right "to a decent home."

Do our current policymakers share FDR's belief? Have they adequately built upon the New Deal's affordable housing foundation - both physically and philosophically?

(Note: For an analysis and list of New Deal commuities see (1) Robert D. Leighninger, Jr., Long-Range Public Investment: The Forgotten Legacy of the New Deal, The University of South Carolina Press, 2007, pp. 118-169, and (2) the Annual Report of the United States Housing Authority, 1941, pp. 70-96.)

New Deal Accomplishment: More than 1,000 projects to build or improve golf courses

Above: A beautiful day at the Oakland Municipal Golf Course, Maryland, 2013. Photo by Brent McKee.

Above: A historical marker at the Oakland Municipal Golf Course, Maryland, explaining the WPA's role in its creation. Photo by Brent McKee, 2013.

Above: Photo by Brent McKee, 2013.

Above: The West Seattle Golf Course in Washington State, ca. 1940. On May 17, 1940, it was reported that "More than 4,000 persons yesterday attended the dedication of the 18-hole West Seattle municipal golf course, built by WPA funds" ("Open New Links," United Press, in the Spokane Chronicle). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Golfing at the WPA-constructed course at Ohio State University, ca. 1938. This 294-acre course, which cost $558,000 to build ($473,000 contributed by WPA), was described as the best in the state ("OSU Golf Course Nears Completion As WPA Project; Called 'Best in Ohio,'" Greenfield Daily Times (Greenfield, Ohio), May 3, 1938). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: Golfers enjoy the St. John Golf Course in New Orleans, January 1939. The course was built by WPA workers in 1938. The New Deal's recreation projects--both infrastructure and supervised activities--were designed to get people moving and socializing. We could use similar efforts today, because Americans' sedentary lifestyles are causing wide-ranging mental and physical health problems (e.g., loneliness and type 2 diabetes). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The WPA also built many nice buildings for public golf courses, such as this one at Mount Hood Golf Course in Massachusetts, 1935-1943. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: A WPA-built clubhouse, at a municipal golf course in Little Rock, Arkansas, 1938. Photo from the National Archives.

New Deal Tee Time

Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers built 254 new golf courses across America, and had 378 other projects to improve existing courses. During this same time frame, the National Youth Administration (NYA) engaged in 442 projects to build, add-to, reconstruct, or otherwise improve golf courses. 

Other New Deal agencies performed golf course work too; but the total volume, as well as the relationship to WPA projects (if any) is sometimes difficult to determine.

In any event, we know that the New Deal carried out over 1,000 projects to build or improve golf courses, greatly increasing the number of recreation opportunities for generations of Americans.

New Deal Accomplishment: 1,850+ miles of new retaining walls and revetments

Above: WPA workers building a retaining wall along Richwood Avenue in Morgantown, West Virginia, ca. 1936. Photo from Lawrence Pietro, Jr. and West Virginia University, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: A section of the Richwood Avenue retaining wall today. The wall was recently accepted into the National Register of Historic Places ("Historic stone walls in Morgantown, West Virginia, added to the national register," West Virginia Explorer Webzine," October 8, 2025). Photo by Brent McKee, 2026.

Above: A WPA-engraved stone on the Richwood Avenue retaining wall. The New Deal built other retaining walls in Morgantown (see, e.g., "Retaining history: Morgantown walls receive historic designation," The Dominion Post (Morgantown, West Virginia), May 8, 2025). Photo by Brent McKee, 2026.

Above: In this view of the WPA retaining wall, you can see two of the homes that benefit from the wall's decades-long ground stabilization. Photo by Brent McKee, 2026.

Above: Here we see both Richwood Avenue and the WPA retaining wall that holds it steady. Photo by Brent McKee, 2026.

Above: WPA workers constructing a retaining wall in Frostburg, Maryland, 1938. Photo from the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: The Frostburg retaining wall in 2011. Photo by Brent McKee.

Above: This information plaque is on the Frostburg retaining wall. Photo by Brent McKee, 2011.

Above: A WPA retaining wall project, along a road in Dalton, Massachusetts, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.

Holding Earth in Place

Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers constructed 1,820 miles of new retaining walls and revetments, and the National Youth Administration (NYA) 33 miles. (Revetments are sloped constructions, designed to protect land from water erosion.)

Other New Deal agencies--such as the Civil Works Administration (CWA) and the Work Division of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)--also built retaining walls and revetments, but the volume of such work is not easily calculated and in some cases was completed by WPA.

At the least, we can say that the New Deal built over 1,850 miles of retaining walls and revetments.