During the height of the Great Depression, as banks failed, unemployment soared, and farm prices dropped, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was established as one of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal projects. The WPA focused on creating and providing jobs rather than handing out direct relief. Most of the WPA jobs were aimed at civic improvements, such as public buildings and roads. Thousands of out-of-work artists and artisans, architects, musicians, writers, historians, and others who had previously been employed in creative or intellectual fields were given temporary work. Parks, trails, bridges, public buildings, artworks, and literary projects produced by the WPA continue to be enjoyed to this day.
Colorado’s division of the WPA issued The WPA Worker: A Monthly Pictorial Journal for Workers and Citizens of Colorado Interested in the Statewide Projects of Works Progress Administration. Issues from 1936 and 1937 have recently been digitized by our library. Each issue of this amazing periodical highlights WPA projects in all corners of the state. These included many construction projects like public buildings, roads, bridges, stadiums, and parks, but also included such varied activities as
- adult education classes
- tuberculosis research
- concerts, plays, craft fairs, and exhibits
- highway signs
- book binding and other library projects
- first aid training
- meals for schoolchildren
- public works projects
- water treatment plants, dams, flood diversion, and other water projects
- sewing projects, including clothing and toys for underprivileged children
- agricultural projects
- murals
- and my personal favorite WPA project, the incredibly detailed diorama of 1860 Denver that you can still view at the History Colorado museum.
As Coloradans suffered from the effects of the Great Depression, the WPA enhanced life in every part of the state, and often undertook long overdue projects that in many cases would not have been otherwise completed. Many of the projects continue to enhance our lives today.
For more resources on the WPA in Colorado, see the following publications available from our library:
- Beet Workers on Relief in Weld County, Colorado
- Bulletin, Works Progress Administration of Colorado
- Colorado Rehabilitation Farms
- Educational Assistance
- The Legacy of the New Deal on Colorado’s Eastern Plains
- The New Deal in Colorado 1933-1942: Properties Listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the Colorado State Register
- The Relief Situation in Colorado Rural and Town Areas
- Rural Households and Dependency
- Rural Youth and Relief in Colorado
- Social Security and Rural Relief in Colorado
- Tourist Travel Study
- Women at Work in Colorado Because of State Sponsors and Works Progress Administration
