Call Number:

24

Repository:

Philadelphia History Museum

Extent:

2.75 linear feet

Language:

English

Date:

circa 1940

Creator:

Pennsylvania. Work Projects Administration. Museum Extension Project

Abstract:

The Works Progress Administration was a "New Deal" program established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 to employ out-of work Americans on public works projects and arts and culture initiatives. The WPA of Pennsylvania started a Museum Extension Project to employ out-of-work artisans and historians in creating visual education aids for classroom use. The WPA Museum Extension Project photographs of Philadelphia, circa 1940, consist of almost 500 photographs of sites and streetscapes in Philadelphia.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was created in 1935 by an Executive Order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It employed idle workers affected by the Great Depression in force since the stock market crash of 1929 on a variety of projects to benefit the nation, including construction, infrastructure, and public works projects as well as arts and culture initiatives. In 1939, the agency was renamed the Work Projects Administration. It continued to operate until 1943.

Soon after the WPA was established, the WPA of Pennsylvania started a Museum Extension Project in 1935 to create visual education aids for classroom use. Its stated goals were: "1. To keep alive and further the skill of unemployed artists, sculptors, writers and others with manual dexterity by giving them employment. 2. To furnish the schools of Pennsylvania with historic models, plates and maps, particularly the smaller school districts in which Museum advantages have been denied the pupils."

The Pennsylvania Museum Extension Program had seven offices in and around Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. The Philadelphia office was co-sponsored with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Atwater Kent Museum (now known as the Philadelphia History Museum), and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Its office was located at Crawford Street and Krail Street in the Falls of Schuylkill neighborhood, now known as East Falls.

Bibliography:

Finding aid to "New Deal Era and WPA Materials in the Pennsylvania State Archives." Accessed November 24, 2014. http://www.ddap.pa.gov/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_23014_2843_358865_43/http%3B/pubcontent.state.pa.us/publishedcontent/publish/cop_environment/phmc/communities/extranet/preservationprograms/75thnewdeal/resourcesucontent/new_deal_finding_aid.pdf.

Findlay, Jim. "The Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its Sub-Agency, the Museum Extension Project." Accessed November 24, 2014. http://digilab.browardlibrary.org/wpa/aboutwpa.html.

Pennsylvania Museum Extension Program. "Report: Philadelphia Museum Extension Projection." 1935. West Chester University. Accessed November 24, 2014. http://digital.klnpa.org/cdm/ref/collection/wpa/id/425.

This collection consists of almost 500 photographs of sites and streetscapes in Philadelphia, including commercial, residential, and public buildings. It is unknown whether these photographs were intended for use as visual aids in classrooms, or whether they were reference images and research for artists creating other forms of educational aids (such as building models). Nearly all of the photographs are labeled with location. The principle photographer was McLintock (first name unknown). An item level inventory is available on site.