New Deal Projects
For this activity, you will be choosing some examples of New Deal projects to research and analyze.
I don’t want you to research and analyze the first items you click on. I want you to spend some time searching for examples that really speak to you!
Farm Security Administration Photography
Contrary to popular association, photography was not the primary work of the Farm Security Administration. The FSA was a New Deal agency designed to combat rural poverty during a period when the agricultural climate and national economy were causing great dislocations in rural life. The photographers who worked under the name of the FSA were hired on for public relations; they were supposed to provide visual evidence that there was need, and that the FSA programs were meeting that need. Beyond serving this institutional image, the photographers were to document aspects of "the American way of life" that caught their eye. This looser and farther-reaching mission ultimately accounted for the vast file of photographs (over 80,000 black and white images) that is now considered one of the most famous documentary photography projects ever.
First, you will choose two photographs taken by photographers for the Farm Security Administration. Click here to access the photos. Once you have chosen your photos, copy and paste them below and answer the questions.
Photo #1
Copy and paste photo here:
- Carefully study the photograph for two minutes. Form an overall impression of the photograph and then examine individual items. Next, divide the photo into quadrants and study each section to see what new details become visible. List the people, objects, and activities found in this photograph.
People / Objects / Activities
- Based on what you have observed above, list 3 things you might infer from this photograph.
- What questions does this photograph raise in your mind?
- Write two or three sentences that describe what you think happened in the moments immediately preceding the creation of the photograph.
- Write two or three sentences that describe what you think happened in the moments immediately following the creation of the photograph.
Photo #2
Copy and paste photo here:
- Carefully study the photograph for two minutes. Form an overall impression of the photograph and then examine individual items. Next, divide the photo into quadrants and study each section to see what new details become visible. List the people, objects, and activities found in this photograph.
People / Objects / Activities
- Based on what you have observed above, list 3 things you might infer from this photograph.
- What questions does this photograph raise in your mind?
- Write two or three sentences that describe what you think happened in the moments immediately preceding the creation of the photograph.
- Write two or three sentences that describe what you think happened in the moments immediately following the creation of the photograph.
Federal Writers’ Project Slave Narratives
In 1855, John Little, a fugitive slave who had escaped to Canada, uttered this perceptive commentary upon attempts to convey the realities of the existence that he had fled: "Tisn't he who has stood and looked on, that can tell you what slavery is--'tis he who has endured." The view that slavery could best be described by those who had themselves experienced it personally has found expression in several thousand commentaries, autobiographies, narratives, and interviews with those who "endured." Although most of these accounts appeared before the Civil War, more than one-third are the result of the ambitious efforts of the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to interview surviving ex-slaves during the 1930s. The result of these efforts was the Slave Narrative Collection, a group of autobiographical accounts of former slaves that today stands as one of the most enduring and noteworthy achievements of the WPA. Compiled in seventeen states during the years 1936-38, the collection consists of more than two thousand interviews with former slaves, most of them first-person accounts of slave life and the respondents' own reactions to bondage. The interviews afforded aged ex-slaves an unparalleled opportunity to give their personal accounts of life under the "peculiar institution," to describe in their own words what it felt like to be a slave in the United States.
Now you will choose two slave narratives. Click hereto access the narratives. Once you have chosen your narratives, copy and paste a link to them below and answer the questions.
Narrative #1
Copy and paste link here:
What is the most important word from this narrative and why? Explain your choice thoroughly.
Narrative #2
Copy and paste link here:
What is the most important word from this narrative and why? Explain your choice thoroughly.
Public Works Projects
No city, town, or rural area was untouched by the New Deal. Hundreds of thousands of roads, schools, theaters, libraries, hospitals, post offices, courthouses, airports, parks, forests, gardens, and artworks—created in only one decade by our parents and grandparents—are still in use today. The long-term payoff from this public investment helped propel American economic growth after the world war andis still working for the American people today.
Finally, you will choose two public works projects. Click hereand/or here to access information about the projects. Please pick ones (1) for which pictures are available and (2) that are still around today.
Project #1:
Copy and paste photo here:
- Name of project:
- Where is this project located?
- When was it constructed?
- Which New Deal agency constructed it?
- What was this New Deal agency created to accomplish?
- Describe the project.
- What is its use today?
- Has the use changed over time? How and why?
Project #2:
Copy and paste photo here:
- Name of project:
- Where is this project located?
- When was it constructed?
- Which New Deal agency constructed it?
- What was this New Deal agency created to accomplish?
- Describe the project.
- What is its use today?
- Has the use changed over time? How and why?