Collections

The WPA Collection includes books, publications, posters, objects, artwork, and other materials created by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal Agency in the United States that President Franklin D. Roosevelt created through executive order 7034 on May 6, 1935. The administration was known as the Works Progress Administration from 1935 to 1939, and then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943. The majority of the materials in the collection were created by the five agencies under the WPA's Federal Project Number One: the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), the Historical Records Survey (HRS), the Federal Theatre Project (FTP), the Federal Music Project (FMP), and the Federal Art Project (FAP).

The WPA Museum Extension Project Collection contains more than 750 children's books, handbooks, posters, and three-dimensional objects such as dioramas, puppets, and models. Works Progress Administration (WPA) visual education programs made these materials, The WPA programs included the Pennslvania Museum Extension Project (MEP) between 1935 and 1943, New York City's Objective Teaching Materials Project, the Kansas Museum Project, and the Wisconsin Visual-Aids Project. These visual education materials were used by public schools, libraries, and museums. As a result, many of the images and texts promote the history and culture of specific states and regions.