#new deal
The Sun Front Page: August 15, 1935
Click on the newspaper above to get a closer view of the front page.
Post link
Arthur Rothstein
Migrant laborers and children living on a Farm Security Administration labor camp, Robstown, Texas, 1942.
Post link
“Mapping the New Deal”:
A Conversation with Richard Walker
Live, virtual program
Date: Wednesday, May 11, 2022, EDT
Time: 2:00 p.m. EDT
Link:https://youtu.be/KfULhsnpqtI
On Wednesday, May 11, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. EDT, the Roosevelt Library will present “Mapping the New Deal”: A Conversation with Richard Walker. FDR Library Acting Director William Harris will lead the discussion with Richard Walker, the Director of the Living New Deal Project. This live, virtual event will be streamed to the Library’s official YouTube, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Q&A in the comments/chat following the presentation.
The mission of the Living New Deal is three-fold: research, presentation and education. It begins with the historical work of uncovering the immense riches of New Deal public works. That research is then made available to all through digital mapping (livingnewdeal.org/map) and a website that serves as a clearinghouse for information on the New Deal. And, finally, the information gained from their work is disseminated as widely as possible through newsletters, social media, written media, interviews, lectures and other public events. For information visitlivingnewdeal.org.
National Quilting Day
Family Quilting by Dorothea Tomlinson Marquis.
This painting was created for the Treasury Department’s Public Works of Art Project (PWAP).
See some of the quilts in our collection on our Digital Artifact Collection: https://fdr.artifacts.archives.gov/search/quilt
FDR creates the UCB as part of his New Deal.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is pictured here, giving one of his famous radio addresses to the American people. These speeches became popularly known as “fireside chats.” He would speak to the nation about his New Deal, unemployment, and U.S. involvement in World War II.
(Photo: Library of Congress)
Post link
“Philadelphia is a good city in which to write American history.“
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
Happy Constitution Day! Today’s the day when we celebrate the signing of the U.S. Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787!
The Constitution acted like a colossal merger, uniting a group of states with different interests, laws, and cultures. Under America’s first national government, the Articles of Confederation, the states acted together only for specific purposes. The Constitution united its citizens as members of a whole, vesting the power of the union in the people. Without it, the American Experiment might have ended as quickly as it had begun.
The National Archives is home to the Constitution, as well as the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights. Today is a great day to brush up on your Charters of Freedom history, or to learn something new about America’s founding documents. Head over to Archives.gov for Constitution Day!
Images:Painted plaster model of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Created in 1937 by the Pennsylvania Museum Extension Project (MEP), a branch of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). From the FDR Library; United States Constitution, page 1.
Post link
Sweatpants & History | The Legacy of FDR
By Jessica Grey On this day, one hundred and thirty-five years ago, the Hyde Park branch of the esteemed Roosevelt family welcomed a new baby boy. That baby boy would go on to be one of the most influential figures—for better and for worse—of the twentieth century. Named for his great uncle, Franklin Hughes Delano, FDR was born into a privileged life in 1882. The only child of the marriage…
WALKER EVANS
Svetlana Alpers, Walker Evans: Starting from Scratch (Princeton University Press, 2020)
Walker Evans, American Photographs (Museum of Modern Art, 1938, 1961, 1975, 2012 editions).
Erosion No. 2: Mother Earth Laid Bare by Alexandre Hogue, 1938.
From the murals funded by the Works Progressive Administration to John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, the artistic output of the Great Depression generally depicted Dust Bowl farmers as victims of an environment and an economy turned savage.
Alexandre Hogue insisted on a different narrative: the recklessness of human agriculture, enhanced by mechanization, funded by capitalism, had raped the essence of the land.
His paintings show no sympathy for the refugees moving to California or the families that stayed behind, living on New Deal welfare. For desecrating the sacred earth, they deserved the revenge nature was inflicting upon them.
Scientific discoveries in land reclamation and the development of new farming methods, funded by the Roosevelt Administration, partially restored harmony to the ecosystem. However, many homesteaders remained reluctant to accept the reforms. The government had to pay a dollar per acre to early adopters to encourage compliance.
As humanity stumbles into a warming climate, a new Dust Bowl, I suspect more artists will adopt Hogue’s point of view this time. It feels like we have forsaken the privilege of sympathy.
Post link
Children take a hearing test given by Works Progress Administration instructors in Holyoke, MA, 5/12/1937.
Come for the New Deal, stay for the creepy fairy tale about playing in water!
Series: WPA Information Division Photographic Index, ca. 1936 - ca. 1942
Record Group 69: Records of the Work Projects Administration, 1922 - 1944
Image description: A class of white, elementary-aged children sit at desks in a school room. Each child is wearing headphones and is writing on a piece of paper. A blackboard in the background is covered in cursive writing.
Transcription of blackboard:
The First Fountain
Once there was a little girl who loved to play in the water. One day she came to a little stream. She jumped up and down in it. At last she heard a voice from the grounds. She tried to run away but her feet were held fast. Her hair became streams of water. A fairy had turned her into a fountain.
Post link
