WPA Museum Models: Egyptian Woman and Cro-Magnon Man

Above: A model of an Egyptian Woman, ca. 1500 B.C. The model was created during a WPA museum project in Baltimore, Maryland, 1938. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A model of Cro-Magnon man, ca. 50,000 B.C. The model was created during a WPA museum project in Baltimore, Maryland, 1938. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: Egyptian Woman, Cro-Magnon Man, and other models on display at the National Museum (Smithsonian), in July 1938. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

California's NYA Quintet

Above: The description for this photograph (ca. 1935-1942) reads, "A band within a band is this 'hot quintet' - part of a National Youth Administration band newly organized in Los Angeles, California, where they will play at various community events. Left to right are Lee Cretarolo, Paul Dunlap, Hall Brant, Jimmy Pullara, and Terry Cruse." Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

A man named Lee Cretarolo, who was born in Massachusetts in 1921 and died in Palo Alto, California in 2008, may be the man pictured above. According to his obituary, he "spent his early post-World War II service years playing bass in small jazz groups" and also worked as a "senior executive of American Building Maintenance Company, headquartered in San Francisco, dealing with sales and operations across much of Northern California..."

Interestingly, there was a famous Hollywood composer named Paul Dunlap (1919-2010) who, according to his Variety magazine obituary, composed music for many films, for example, The San Francisco Story, and for television shows, for example, Gunsmoke, and also seems to have played piano. However, I'm not 100% sure if that is the same Paul Dunlap that we see playing piano in the photo above. The age would be about right though; approximately 16 to 23 years old in the photograph (the NYA hired young Americans between the ages of 16 and 24).

I couldn't find any information on Brant, Pullara, or Cruse. What happened to them? Did they serve in World War II? Did they have musical careers? Did they settle in California? Maybe someone out there in the Internet world knows...

WPA Museum Models: Roman Lictor and Egyptian Woman

Above: A model showing a Roman lictor from 66 A.D. The model was created during a WPA project in Baltimore, 1938. Image courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A model showing an Egyptian woman from 1500 B.C.. The model was created during a WPA project in Baltimore, 1938. Image courtesy of the National Archives.

WPA Museum Models: Queen Elizabeth and Gothic Knight

Above: A WPA model of Queen Elizabeth. Image courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A WPA model of a Gothic knight. Image courtesy of the National Archives.

These two models were created on a WPA Museum Extension project in Baltimore, Maryland, 1938. The Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43 describes the type of help that the WPA provided to museums during the 1930s - when many museums were experiencing funding problems: 

"WPA workers assisted museums in the making of dioramas, models, maps, lantern slides, and other visual-aid devices for extension work in public schools. These workers also assisted museums in the rearrangement and modernization of exhibits, and in the creation of accurate miniature representations of scenes illustrating (for example) the use of garments, dwellings and implements by aborigines or prehistoric peoples. WPA clerical workers assisted in the classifying and indexing of art, archaeological, and historical materials" (p. 63).

New Deal fish conservation and propagation

Above: The description for this photograph (ca. 1937-1942) reads, "The man sitting on the platform at the left counts salmon as they use a Bonneville Dam fish ladder to work upstream." The Bonneville Dam was constructed with the assistance of the New Deal's Public Works Administration. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A WPA laborer works on a fish hatchery near Lewiston, Maryland, in November 1937. Across the nation, WPA workers built 161 new fish hatcheries, expanded 135 others, and repaired or improved 159 more (Federal Works Agency, Final Report on the WPA Program 1935-43, p. 132). Photo courtesy of the University of Maryland College Park Archives.

Above: "Fish Market," an etching and aquatint on paper, created by Sarah Berman (1895-1957) while she was in the WPA's art program, ca. 1939. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

New Deal policymakers and workers did much to conserve and propagate fish species. For example, the Civilian Conservation Corps built about 4,600 fish rearing ponds (and maintained nearly 1,200 others), and "stocked streams, ponds, lakes and reservoirs with the enormous number of 972,203,910 fish or fingerlings!" (Federal Security Agency, Final Report of the Director of the Civilian Conservation Corps, April 1933 through June 30, 1942, p. 47).

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has highlighted that a "New Deal for Conservation" occurred during the Roosevelt years. This included the construction of Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland (built in large part with WPA and CCC labor), the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (1934), and the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (1937).

Though there were certainly some environmental mistakes during the New Deal (for example, the benefit of predators was not fully appreciated), all the wildlife refuges created, and all the billion of trees planted, and all the millions of bushels of oysters planted, and all the hundreds of millions of fish stocked in ponds, lakes, and rivers, shows that, long before Rachel Carson's highly influential book, Silent Spring, New Deal policymakers and workers were engaging in a massive environmental conservation movement. (Carson, by the way, worked in the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries during the New Deal.)

So, to those who enjoy catching and eating fish (which includes myself), I say: Give a little thanks to the New Deal.

New Deal Art: "Restaurant 4pm"

Above: "Restaurant 4pm," an oil painting by Bendor Mark (born "Bernard Marcus," 1912-1995), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1935. According to a biography on the website of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, "Bendor Mark... devoted most of his art to political statements... In 1937 he painted a series condemning the exploitation of mine workers and exhibited one of the scenes at the 1939 New York World’s Fair... During World War II he prepared classified drawings for army contractors and when the fighting ended continued to work as a graphic artist... Around 1955 his work began to be rejected from exhibitions, and he consequently withdrew from the public eye. Thereafter his political paintings became increasingly satirical." Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

NYA resident project in Berkeley, California

Above: The description for this photograph (ca. 1935-1943) reads, "View showing the entrance to the National Youth Administration resident project at 3028 Regent St., Berkeley, California, used for the training of youths in domestic art, cosmetology and practical nursing." During the 1930s, when private business wouldn't (or couldn't) provide work for young people, the NYA offered jobs, training, and hope for millions. The building you see above seems to still exist (see here), and the address is now listed as the Eden Community Care Home for the Elderly. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: The description for this photograph (ca. 1935-1943) reads, "When at work, youths on this National Youth Administration resident project in Berkeley, California, learn the fundamentals of domestic art, cosmetology, and practical nursing. This scene shows youth occupants at recreation and study. The workers on this project enjoy the homey atmosphere." During the economically rough years of the Great Depression, the NYA facilitated social interaction and professional networking for young men and women. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Anne Treadwell, Director of the California NYA

Above: Anne Treadwell (1905-2002), left, director of the National Youth Administration (NYA) in California from 1935 to 1939. The others in the photograph are (left to right): Mary McLeod Bethune, national director of the NYA's Division of Negro Affairs; Bill Robinson, a famous tap dancer; and Arthur Yale, the NYA supervisor for Los Angeles County. Photo taken in April 1938, provided courtesy of the National Archives.

In 1996, an oral history interview of Anne Treadwell was conducted (her name being Anne Dettner at the time of the interview), and these are some of her recollections of the Great Depression and NYA years:

On the years before the NYA: "the NYA wasn't being talked about at that time... It was generally accepted that people who could not support themselves and their families must suffer from neuroses, health problems, or personality defects."

On Eleanor Roosevelt: "The NYA was a program that was conceived and pushed by Mrs. Roosevelt. She, of course, was fully in favor of the WPA program [during Treadwell's time as director, the NYA was a subdivision of the WPA]. She thought young people have got to have a place in this whole effort of the federal government to get through the Depression. There ought to be a special organization for young people, to understand their needs and work in their behalf. And she remained very much interested in the program through its whole existence."

After turning down a WPA supervisory job: "But then when I got the other call to do the NYA, that was different matter. And of course, I had my headquarters in San Francisco."

Responding to the question, "how did it happen that the youth program was headquartered in San Francisco?": "Because I lived here and nobody asked me to move."

On the effect of the NYA: "[The NYA] was a godsend for young people. I can't tell you the number of people I've met in later life who have told me things like, 'Oh, if it hadn't been for the NYA, I couldn't have gone to school.' Or somebody says, 'I couldn't have had a cello,' who later became a professional musician. So it was really, I think, a very, very worthwhile and satisfying undertaking."

On creating a new NYA and CCC in modern times: "I have thought over and over that we should have a program of that sort during this current period when youngsters are joining gangs and buying guns and all this sort of thing. There was nothing like that in those days. I mean, youngsters didn't feel they were totally abandoned or that nobody gave a thought to what they did with their lives. It seems to me that was an extremely valuable thing... I think they were extremely valuable programs. And I think we should have them in any situation where the social condition is deteriorated."

New Deal lawn cutting

Above: The description for this 1940 National Youth Administration photograph reads, "Marven Haralson, operating power mower on lawn planted and tended by youth workers, Land Propagation and Construction Project at Westley FSA [Farm Security Administration] Camp, Westley, California." Notice that the lawn mower is a Toro. Toro was formed in 1914 and still makes lawn equipment today. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

New Deal Art: "Landscape With A Hill"

Above: "Landscape With A Hill," an oil painting by Mark Baum (1903-1997), created while he was in the WPA's Federal Art Project, 1936. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.