The New Deal was one of the largest government programs implemented in the twentieth century. Yet only recently have historians begun to explore the impact of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) on American culture by studying its smaller programs such as the Federal Writer's, Theatre, and Art Projects. This paper explores the life of Caroline Wogan Durieux, a New Orleans artist, WPA Federal Art Project (FAP) administrator, and representative for the United States' State Department, centering upon Durieux's career from 1917 to 1943. Durieux's work with the FAP, and later the State Department, helped to redefine the role of art in American society by making art widely accessible to the public. With her influential connections in New Orleans society and her commitment to public art, Durieux bridged the gap between art for the privileged few and art for the masses.

New Deal Art Now offers a sampling of the breadth of the Works Progress Administration and Federal Art Projects (WPA/FAP), calling attention to the skills, histories, and social identities of an extraordinarily diverse spectrum of professional and amateur artists funded by the United States federal government during the Great Depression. The New Deal, a major economic stimulus initiative that ran from 1935-1943, included the Works Progress Administration Federal One Projects, encompassing fine art, music, theater, writing, and design. These projects provided economic support and cultural enrichment to hundreds of thousands of Americans, in the form of jobs, entertainment, and education in the arts. New Deal Art Now seeks to reframe a period of United States artistic production that is often narrowly cast in exhibitions and their related literature on the subject. The theme of diversity is explored through several critical lenses, such as questioning the relationship between art and artifact, considering that many creative works of the New Deal function as both. The majority of the exhibited artworks are juxtaposed against one another to challenge the designations that contemporary material culture traditionally assigns them. Showcasing 48 objects in total, the exhibits include painting, sculpture, educational models, archival film, and archival audio, which are juxtaposed alongside contemporary paintings, photography, and music, created in conjunction with this exhibition. By situating these works (as well as the very categories of amateur and professional, art and artifact, museum and archive, past and present) in productive relation to one another this exhibition argues for the significance of all of these works and artists to the diverse history of twentieth-century American art.

The depression of the 1930s had an early effect on the state of Oregon. A decline in timber and agricultural production resulted in severe unemployment in the late 1920s. State and local charitable organizations attempted to care for the unemployed but they did not have the financial resources to do so. Although President Herbert Hoover was worried about the effects of the growing economic crisis on the business community, he continued to believe that the depression would be short lived despite the worsening social conditions. When Franklin Roosevelt was elected president he initiated a series of measures aimed at ending the depression and bringing people back into the work force. Among those measures was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). In Oregon the WPA built upon earlier state relief organizations. However, unlike the earlier Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the WPA was a federal organization staffed with federal employees. Its programs were run according to federal guidelines and regulations and much of its funding came from the federal government. Those guidelines often worked against the state programs. The means test, quota systems, and the need to refer programs to Washington D.C. prevented the Oregon program from being as effective as it could be. In addition, the Oregon legislature and governor acted against the program by not providing adequate funding to support it. However, even though Oregonians did not always accept the WPA, they were dramatically changed by its programs. The most obvious change was in the physical appearance of the state - new roads and highways, more bridges, expanded parks, additional airports, and many new services. The state was altered politically because by World War II, the federal government had permanently insinuated itself into the life of most Oregonians. / Graduation date: 1991

The purpose of this study is to follow the W P A lunch program in the Williams High School District of Brown County, Texas during the school year 1941-1942, and the effect of this program upon the height, weight, attendance and grades of the children participating.

Cette étude porte sur les expositions photographiques produites par le gouvernement américain entre 1935 et 1942. Ces expositions avaient pour but de promouvoir les activités entreprises par l’administration Roosevelt dans le cadre de son programme de relance économique. L’étude est constituée de trois grandes parties : la première présente les enjeux politiques et sociaux du New Deal et éclaire les défis auxquels les propagandistes du gouvernement Roosevelt ont été confrontés. Elle montre alors l’intérêt et la fonction que la photographie et l’exposition ont eu dans le programme de propagande. La seconde présente le rôle joué par les expositions universelles dans le développement des techniques scénographiques employées par l’administration. La dernière porte sur les expositions artistiques du gouvernement et sur leur valeur propagandiste. / This study focuses on photographic exhibitions produced by the US government between 1935 and 1942. These exhibitions aimed to publicize the Roosevelt administration’s economic stimulus program. The study is divided into three parts. The first part outlines the political and social issues of the New Deal while shedding light on the challenges faced by the propagandists in the Roosevelt administration, as well as the appeal and function of photography and exhibitions in its propaganda program. The second part considers the role played by world fairsin the development of design techniques employed by the administration. The final section addresses the government’s artistic exhibitions and their value as propaganda.

For decades, scholars have debated the significance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), emphasizing its political, economic, and artistic impact. This historiography is dominated by the accomplishments of white men. In an effort to highlight the long-neglected legions of black women who contributed to WPA projects and navigated the agency’s discriminatory practices, this paper will examine WPA operations in New Orleans where unemployment was the highest in the urban south, black women completed numerous large-scale projects, and white supremacist notions guided relief protocol. By analyzing the New Orleans WPA Photography collection, along with newspapers, government documents, and oral histories, a new perspective of the WPA emerges to illuminate the experiences of marginalized black women workers, illustrate how the legacies of slavery and effects of segregation impact black women’s employment opportunities, and highlight how black women made substantive contributions to public projects in the face of societal constraints.