#columbus museum

May 6, 1935 – FDR creates Works Progress Administration (WPA)

“On this day in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order creating the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA was just one of many Great Depression relief programs created under the auspices of the Emergency Relief Appropriations Act, which Roosevelt had signed the month before. The WPA, the Public Works Administration (PWA) and other federal assistance programs put unemployed Americans to work in return for temporary financial assistance. Out of the 10 million jobless men in the United States in 1935, 3 million were helped by WPA jobs alone.While FDR believed in the elementary principles of justice and fairness, he also expressed disdain for doling out welfare to otherwise able workers. So, in return for monetary aid, WPA workers built highways, schools, hospitals, airports and playgrounds. They restored theaters–such as the Dock Street Theater in Charleston, S.C.–and built the ski lodge at Oregon’s Mt. Hood. The WPA also put actors, writers and other creative arts professionals back to work by sponsoring federally funded plays, art projects, such as murals on public buildings, and literary publications. FDR safeguarded private enterprise from competition with WPA projects by including a provision in the act that placed wage and price controls on federally funded products or services.Opponents of the New Deal in Congress gradually pared back WPA appropriations in the years leading up to World War II. By 1940, the economy was roaring back to life with a surge in defense-industry production and, in 1943, Congress suspended many of the programs under the ERA Act, including the WPA.“|
-History.com

This week in History:
May 3, 1952 First aircraft lands at North Pole
May 4, 1965 Willie Mays breaks National League home run record
May 5, 1961 Alan Shepard becomes first American in space
May 6, 1940 John Steinbeck wins Pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath
May 7, 1994 Munch’s The Scream recovered after theft
May 8, 1945 V-E Day is celebrated in America and Britain
May 9, 1914 Woodrow Wilson proclaims first Mother’s Day holiday

Thisprint by Paul Kucharyson can be found in the online collection of The Columbus Museum.

January 2, 1788 - Georgia enters Union

“Georgia votes to ratify the U.S. Constitution, becoming the fourth state in the modern United States. Named after King George II, Georgia was first settled by Europeans in 1733, when a group of British debtors led by English philanthropist James E. Oglethorpe traveled up the Savannah River and established Georgia’s first permanent settlement–the town of Savannah. In 1742, as part of a larger conflict between Spain and Great Britain, Oglethorpe defeated the Spanish on St. Simons Island in Georgia, effectively ending Spanish claims to the territory of Georgia.

Georgia, rich in export potential, was one of the most prosperous British colonies in America and was thus slower than the other colonies to resent the oppressive acts of the Parliament and King George III. However, by the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Georgian Patriots had organized, and delegates were sent to the Second Continental Congress. During the war, Georgia was heavily divided between Loyalists and Patriots, and the British soon held most of the state. Savannah served as a key British base for their southern war operations, and the grim four-year British occupation won many Georgians over to the Patriot cause. In 1788, Georgia became the first southern state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.”

-History.com

This week in History:
December 30, 1862 - USS Monitor sinks
December 31, 1879 - Edison demonstrates incandescent light
January 1, 1876 - First modern Mummer’s Parade
January 2, 1974 - Nixon signs national speed limit into law
January 3, 1959 - Alaska admitted into Union
January 4, 1965 - LBJ envisions Great Society in State of Union Address
January 5, 1933 - Golden Gate Bridge is born

Thismap of Georgia from 1827 can be found in the online collection of the Columbus Museum.