By the People, for the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 The Library of Congress' collection of more than 900 posters produced under the auspices of the WPA.

During the years of the WPA, the Federal Art Project sponsored artists and art-related activities throughout thousands of communities throughout the U.S.   

New Deal Art during the Great Depression

Depression/New Deal Art Photograph

The U.S. Works Projects Administration Federal Music Project Collection at the Library of Congress states that the main goal of the Federal Music Project and subsequent WPA Music Program was "to give employment to professional musicians registered on the relief rolls."  Among the interesting subsets is Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections.

WPA California Folk Music Project - California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties offers us a multi-media collection including documents, photographs, and recordings spanning a variety of ethnic groups in Northern California during the 1930s.

Musicians at tavern on the south side of Chicago
Courtesy of Library of Congress 

WPA Federal Theatre Project "Horse Eats Hat," Courtesy of Library of Congress

"Black theater and Yiddish, French, German, Italian, and Spanish language presentations. There has been nothing comparable to it since." - American Treasures of the Library of Congress: Federal Theatre

New Deal Stage: Selections from the Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939 
This amazing online repository includes thousands of documents, photographs, posters, and costume and stage designs.

Visit George Mason University's Federal Theatre Project Materials Collections to see theatrical posters and set and costume designs for more than 500 Federal Theatre Project productions.

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 
Recordings of thousands of stories of people from various ethnic groups and occupations

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 
This American Memory collection provides access to first-person accounts of slavery and photographs of former slaves.

Do You Speak American? - Power of Prose: the WPA 
On this PBS web site, Christa Smith Anderson discusses how the Federal Writers' Project "nurtured talent and collected voices coast to coast."

National Public Radio - "America Eats" - a Hidden Archive from the 1930s offers audio files featuring commentary on one of the more unusual WPA Writers' projects: America Eats, an exploration of American foodways in the 1930s.

New Deal Programs: Selected Library of Congress Resources - Federal Writers' Project contains a useful article on the Federal Writers' Project, information about manuscript collections and online resources.

New York City, American Guide Series, Courtesy of Library of Congress

Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage - selection of WPA photographs furnishes a look at WPA activities in Maryland.

New Deal/WPA Art in Maryland provides a list and some views of New Deal/WPA Art in Maryland. Check out the Bel Air Post Office's "First Performance of Edwin Booth." 

WPA and CCC: Catoctin Mountain Park tells the fascinating story of how the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps teamed up to create the beautiful Catoctin Mountain Park.