Remembering the New Deal during Women's History Month: The Scientists

Above: Part of "Contemporary Justice and Woman," an oil painting at the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington, DC; created by Emil Bisttram (1895-1976) while he was in the New Deal's Section of Fine Arts, 1937. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Above: A woman in the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) performing research on amoebic dysentery, in Evanston, Illinois, ca. 1934. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A young lady at Howard University works in a new Public Works Administration (PWA)-funded Chemistry Building, ca. 1937. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: The next generation of women scientists? A scene from a new PWA-funded laboratory building at the University of Washington, ca. 1936. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: A young lady working in a science building in Kentucky, part of a National Youth Administration (NYA) project. The NYA helped many young women complete their high school diplomas, college degrees, and graduate school studies. In return, the women worked on all sorts of projects, for example, laboratory research. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: These women are assisting a study on malaria, on a Civil Works Administration (CWA) project in Louisville, Kentucky, ca. 1933-1934. 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: WPA chemists analyzing blood samples in New Orleans, ca. 1935-1943. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: The description for this 1936 photograph reads, "Ann Law, Anna White, Linda Cotton and Ruth Robertson, WPA workers, recording, calipering, cross sectioning, and determining the exact design, temper, execution, cross section, surface finish, and other data on the pieces of Indian pottery found in the Indian Mounds at East Macon, Georgia." The New Deal hired all sorts of unemployed, technically-trained women, for example, laboratory technicians, bacteriologists, and researchers from various fields of study. In 1934, it was noted that "At least seventy vocations and professions were represented in the ranks of women workers [in the CWA]" (Henry Alsberg, America Fights the Depression: A Photographic Record of the Civil Works Administration, New York: Coward-McCann, 1934, p. 115). Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Above: One of the most famous of women scientists is Rachel Carson (1907-1964), a marine biologist who worked for the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries (an agency that merged into today's U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) from 1935-1952. Carson resigned from federal service when her writing career took off; and her 1962 book, Silent Spring, had a major impact on the environmental movement in the United States. There is an interesting link between Carson and President Franklin Roosevelt: FDR was a conservationist; FDR (and Congress) created the CCC and the WPA; the CCC and the WPA constructed Patuxent Research Refuge (PRR, Maryland); scientists at PRR carried out research on the environmental effects of pesticides; Silent Spring was heavily influenced by PRR's research findings (Carson's book, as well as further studies at PRR, eventually led to a ban on DDT). Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

If you're interested in learning more about women's contributions to medicine and science, see the Smithsonian's great photo and biography exhibit "Women in Science." (Many of the women featured were very active during the New Deal years.)