Above: "Navajo Blanket Weavers," a painting by R.W.R. Taylor, created while he was in the WPA's art program, ca. 1935-1943. Image courtesy of the General Services Administration and Mike Ramos.
Above: A Civil Works Administration (CWA) project: "Navajo women carding and spinning for rug-weaving, Santa Fe, New Mexico," ca. 1933-1934. Not too long after this photo was taken, the New Deal set up the Indian Arts & Crafts Board to promote and protect the artwork and handicrafts of American Indians. Photo from Henry Alsberg, "America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration," New York: Coward-McCann, 1934, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.
Above: A WPA poster advertising a WPA performance of The Weavers. The Weavers was written in 1892 and tells the story of a group of traditional weavers who revolt against the Industrial Revolution's damage to their profession. The WPA performances of the play took place at the Mayan Theatre in Los Angeles, from November 25 through December 19, 1937. WPA Theatre Director Hallie Flanagan noted that the play was thought by some to be "communistic" and "subversive" (Hallie Flanagan, Arena, 1940, pp. 284 and 401). This type of backwards and submissive thinking is still prevalent today. If workers protest bad working conditions or a deteriorating quality of life, charges of "socialism" and "communism" are leveled against them. The thought seems to be, "Capitalism requires that you keep your mouth shut and sacrifice your health, happiness, and financial well-being for the pleasure of millionaires and billionaires! No protesting allowed!!" How pathetic is that? Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Above: On this CWA project in Greene County, Missouri, ca. 1933-1934, an 86-year-old woman demonstrates how spinning yarn and thread was done back in the day. Many New Deal projects focused on the preservation or transference of history and knowledge, for example, food recipes, folk songs, sewing, oral histories, and so on. Photo from Henry Alsberg, "America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration," New York: Coward-McCann, 1934, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.
Above: In this CWA demonstration project in Connecticut, ca. 1933-1934, we see a combination spinning & weaving device. Photo from Henry Alsberg, "America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration," New York: Coward-McCann, 1934, used here for educational, non-commercial purposes.
Above: A WPA poster promoting the hiring of unemployed Americans, showing a spinning wheel to the right of a pottery wheel. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Above: "Way of Life," a very interesting painting / mural study by George Harold Fisher (1895-1986), created while he was in the New Deal's Section of Fine Arts, 1938. Notice the spinning wheel in the background. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Above: A closer look at the spinning wheel in Fisher's painting.
Above: A Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) hook rug project in the Virgin Islands, ca. 1934. The description for the photograph explains that the project "has been so successful and a market has been found for the rugs that it is hoped that this industry will continue." Across the nation, workers in the FERA made over 70,000 rugs for low-income Americans (Federal Emergency Relief Administration, The Emergency Work Relief Program of the F.E.R.A., April 1, 1934 – July 1, 1935, 1936, p. 65). Photo courtesy of the National Archives.
Above: A migrant worker's wife makes a hooked rug in a WPA class, at a Farm Security Administration camp in Caldwell, Idaho, 1941. Migrant workers (often dispossessed farmers) frequently lived in impromptu shacks or work camps. Here, we see a WPA effort to bring people together during tough times and also help them stretch their money further. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Above: The description for this 1937 photograph reads, "Rural arts exhibition held under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in the patio of the U.S. Department of Agriculture building. Rugs from WPA (Works Progress Administration), Colorado; finger weaving from Vermont and North Carolina; woven towels from Southern Highlands; pottery from Steads, North Carolina; fabrics from Southern Highlands and Farm Security; luncheon set and embroidered runner from New Hampshire; miniature weaving set from North Dakota; bags from all parts of the [country?]." The New Deal government, unlike the modern federal government (which is preoccupied with serving the day-to-day whims of the billionaire class), was an exuberant promoter of the arts, artists, and craftsmen and women - and not just professional works, but also artwork and handicrafts from the common man, from the unemployed, from children just starting to learn. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Above: "Spanish-American woman weaving a rag rug at WPA project. Costilla, New Mexico," 1939. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.
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