Women and the WPA (part 9 of 10): Helping those in great need

Many Americans needed a great deal of help during the 1930s. Both routine problems and not-so-routine tragedies were magnified by the economic disasters of the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Fortunately for Americans in great need, the WPA was often there to help. Women (like other groups) gave and received assistance in various WPA programs.

 Above: This photo was taken in Seattle, Washington, and the caption reads, "Miss Catherine Donnelly, age 16, High School Girl, learning to talk in a WPA lip reading class. When an infant, she lost the ability to speak except with great restraint and no method of correcting this impediment was available through the public schools. After a few months of instruction in a WPA lip-reading class, she is now able to read connectedly for the first time the poetry, 'The Fairy Bridges,' a book of verse for children, which she wrote four years ago." Photo courtesy of the National Archives and the New Deal Network.

Above: The caption for this photo reads, "Voice Training for the Hard of Hearing. This class (front view) in voice diction for the Hard of Hearing is one of the most interesting and effective in the San Francisco Program of the WPA Education Program of the California Department of Education. The class is conducted in cooperation with the San Francisco Association for the Hard of Hearing. Through the diction exercise the Hard of Hearing are trained to speak normally, and to be heard and understood properly. Each seat is equipped with an ear phone and the voice of the speaker comes through the radioear at which she stands. Members of the class are not only enabled to learn to hear correctly but are also given the opportunity of voice training by speaking to the others through the radioear." Photo courtesy of the National Archives and the New Deal Network.

Above: "Three WPA gardening projects in Denver, Pueblo and Greeley will produce approximately 665 tons of vegetables for distribution to indigent families receiving direct relief. A million cans of vegetables grown and processed by WPA workers will be distributed in these three cities under the supervision of the State Department of Public Welfare and county government. Shot shows vegetables in the process of being canned." Photo courtesy of the National Archives and the New Deal Network.

 

Above: "Child receiving treatment in therapeutic pool at Lindsay School for crippled children (St. Paul Minnesota). Two WPA assistants assigned through Division of Hygiene Project." Photo courtesy of the National Archives and the New Deal Network.

Above: "For the male inmates of the institution ceramics is taught. Group of men is shown gathered around one of the turn-tables where pottery is made. The woman seated is a WPA instructor. Longview Hospital for the Insane (Cincinnati, Ohio) ." Photo courtesy of the National Archives and the New Deal Network.