New Deal Accomplishment: Hundreds of thousands of maps and land models

Above: A street map of Hilo, Hawaii, also showing points of interest, created by the WPA between 1935 and 1943. Image from the Hawaii State Archives.

Above: A close-up section of the Hilo map. Old maps can be fun to look at - to see things that used to be there, and then research whether they're still there. For example, trains no longer run through Hilo, after the railroad's tracks and bridges were destroyed by a tsunami in 1946 (not long after this map was made); but using Google Maps, we can see that the tennis courts between Ululani Street and Kinoole St.--constructed by the New Deal's CWA and FERA work programs--are still there today. Indeed, they're getting renovated right now: "Popular tennis courts at Lincoln Park in downtown Hilo getting face-lift," Big Island Now, May 31, 2026.

Above: Another close-up section of the map.

Above: Working on maps, as part of a WPA Ocean Climate Survey Project, sponsored by the U.S. Weather Bureau, between 1935 and 1943. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The WPA made many maps showing the locations of their projects. Image from a WPA progress report.

Above: A 1942 map of the Chicago Zoological Park--the "Brookfield Zoo"--created by WPA artists (the zoo itself was created by the New Deal too). Image scanned from a personal copy.

Above: A close-up section of the WPA's Brookfield Zoo map. For patrons of the zoo today, this map would be interesting for comparison purposes (the layout of the zoo today, compared to 1942).

Above: An exhibit of WPA accomplishments, at the Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939-1940. Image from a 1940 report on WPA activities at the fair.

Above: The WPA built an enormous model of San Francisco, 1938-1940. It is 37.5 x 41 feet and "made of individual blocks which can be removed for study or replaced when changes are made. Every building and structure is shown in its exact position" ("S.F. To Become A Model City," The San Francisco News, December 2, 1939, p. 3). The model has spent most of its life stored away and forgotten, but will soon be on full display again. Photo from the San Francisco Department of City Planning Records (SFH 465), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.

Above: 500 WPA workers built a huge relief map--designed to be walked through (and perhaps also over, on a bridge)--for the Hall of Western States Exhibit, at the Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939-1940. The map was built in San Francisco using pantograph machines, had dimensions of 110 x 100 feet, and showcased industrial expansion across the west. It consisted of 555 parts, was described as very colorful and with lights, and gave visitors a modeled viewpoint from 10,000 feet. Governor Culbert Olson accepted the map on behalf of California during dedication ceremonies in the Hall of Western States, June 17, 1939. There seems to be very few photographs of this amazing work and the model was apparently destroyed after the Exposition, in the rush to make Treasure Island a U.S. Navy facility. (Sources: Lodi News-Sentinel (Lodi, CA), 10-10-1938, p. 2; The Napa Journal (Napa, CA), 1-13-1939, p. 2; The San Francisco News, 6-15-1939, p. 13; and The Salt Lake Tribune, 6-19-1939, p. 16). Photo above from the United Press, appearing in the Lodi News-Sentinel, 10-10-1938, p. 2, and newspapers.com; used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: The description for this photograph, ca. 1938, reads: "Youth on the art project of the NYA in S.F., California is shown putting the finishing touches on a scale model of the Holly Park Housing Project." The Holly Courts Housing Project was a New Deal / United States Housing Authority project that still provides affordable housing today. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: An NYA worker shows a map that she and others are creating for the residents of the Holly Courts Housing Project in San Francisco (also see previous photo), May 1940. Photo from the National Archives.

Above: NYA workers creating maps and globes for schools (unknown location, ca. 1935-1938). Photo from Betty and Ernest K. Lindley, A New Deal for Youth: The Story of the National Youth Administration, New York: The Viking Press, 1938, used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: This is an NYA land conservation model that was exhibited in Washington, DC, between 1935 and 1943 (no other details are known). Photo from the National Archives.

Above: The description for this 1937 photograph reads in part: "A 38.5 by 22.7 diorama-relief map of Chicago... with all streets, tracks, parks, bridges, principal buildings and other structures in their exact locations, is being completed as a WPA Illinois work project... [the buildings] will be colored according to their construction... red for brick, white for concrete or stone, and yellow for wood." Photo credited to "ACME," scanned from a personal copy, and used here for educational and non-commercial purposes.

Above: "Sensitive fingertips lightly trace a geographic course over this WPA Braille map. Perkins Institute for the Blind, Watertown, Mass., July 22, 1936" (also see, "WPA Maps," Perkins School for the Blind, accessed July 14, 2026). Photo and quote from the National Archives.

Above: CCC enrollees helping the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) with mapping, between 1933 and 1942. Photo from: Hands to Save the Soil, a 1938 booklet produced by both the CCC and SCS.

Above: Part of a soil survey map for Berkeley County, West Virginia, 1966, from a Soil Survey publication of the Soil Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Image scanned from a personal copy.

Above: A close-up section of the Berkeley County, West Virginia soil survey map (see previous photo). The codes give us information about the land. For example, "WaB" stands for "Waynesboro gravelly loam, 3 to 8 percent slopes," and "BmD3" tells us the area has "Berks-Montevallo shaly silt loams, 15 to 25 percent slopes, severely eroded." To see the utility of soil survey maps, see "Soil Surveys Can Help You," Natural Resources Conservation Service (accessed, July 14, 2026).

New Deal Mapping and Modeling

We'll probably never know how many maps and land models the New Deal created because the numbers were so massive (especially the maps) while the record-keeping was not as sufficient as it could have been. There is also the problem of distinguishing statistics for individual maps vs. copies of maps (for example, one soil map might be printed several times).

In any event, here are some items to consider:

1. In 1939, it was reported that the WPA had drawn 116,000 maps through June 1938 (Federal Works Agency, Report on Progress of the WPA Program, June 30, 1939, p. 24.). This is the only cumulative statistic I've seen for WPA maps... and it's only for the first 3 years of the WPA's 8-year existence (I've never seen any land model numbers).

Between 1935 and 1943, WPA workers made maps of, and for: states, cities, and localities (e.g., point-of-interest maps for the WPA guidebooks); infrastructure (for example, maps showing water and sewer line locations); national defense (especially during the early war years); property boundary lines and tax assessments; housing and population surveys; historical sites; coal mines; Braille maps for schools for the blind; and more.

2. The New Deal's Soil Conservation Service (SCS, originally called the "Soil Erosion Service") immediately began surveying and making maps - on an industrial scale. For example, 1.9 billion acres of land (nearly 84% of the entire U.S. land mass) were surveyed and mapped as part of the 1934 National Erosion Reconnaissance Survey; by 1949 the SCS had 8 printing plants; and during fiscal year 1953, "More than 300,000 land capability and land use maps of individual farms and ranches were produced."

3. The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) spent about 620,000 man-days on maps and models, in conjunction with the SCS, and probably many other agencies, such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Forest Service, and Bureau of Reclamation. That's the equivalent of one man working on maps and models for 620,000 days, or about 1,700 years (A CCC map-making Methuselah!). 

Enrollee W.E. Richards of CCC Company 538 recalled building "a beautiful park on the bank of Lake Walcott Reservoir, Rupert, Idaho... [and] With one other enrollee we prepared a topographic map of the park." Richards recalled his time in the CCC as "undoubtedly the happiest and most rewarding months of my life." After the CCC, he went to work for the Wright Aeronautical Corporation and then became an Army pilot during World War II. (Perry H. Merrill, Roosevelt's Forest Army: A History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942, 1981, pp. 78-79.) 

4. Other agencies of the New Deal, such as the National Youth Administration (NYA) and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), also made large numbers of maps but, again, good totals are not readily available. 

5. The U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition (1939-1941), which FDR played a significant role in creating and planning, mapped large portions of Antarctica.

Clearly, there were millions of maps and a great number of land models made by New Deal agencies--both individual and distinctly drawn maps, and copies of those maps--but good cumulative numbers just aren't available so, in keeping with my conservative estimates of the total New Deal product, let's keep it at, "Hundreds of thousands of maps and land models."