History Commons^™

The Lone Star On Relief: The Story Of The Texas Federal Writers' Project, 1935-1943, Michael William Mitchell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

My academic interest in the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) began in 1993. I have been interested in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) from the time I was in my middle school years listening to stories from my grandmother. As a result, I grew up feeling that the WPA represented a part of a remarkable time and was a fascinating attempt by the far-away national government to help ordinary people in Texas struck down by the Great Depression. While conducting research on my master’s thesis, I met an archivist at the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina who …

Regionalist Romance: "America Eats" And The Culinary Myth-Making Of The Federal Writers' Project, Icarus J. Smith

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis expands upon food historian Camille Bégin's assertion that the "America Eats" manuscript of the New Deal's Federal Writers' Project was "in tune with the interwar revival of regionalism" in the United States. Using archival material associated with the project and regionalist literature of the period, this study explores the dichotomies inherent in the broader regionalist movement of the Depression Era -- particularly using the project's treatment of the American West. Using foodways as the topic and regionalism as the intellectual framework, the FWP employees sought to document what they believed was the authentic culinary character of the nation …

All Trails Lead To Sterling: How Sterling Brown Fathered The Field Of Black Literary And Cultural Studies, 1936-1969, Amber E. Zu-Bolton

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Poet and professor Sterling A. Brown (1901-1989) played a significant role in the birth of black literary and cultural studies through his literary and academic careers. Brown helped to establish a new wave of black cultural and folklore studies during his time as the “Director of Negro Affairs” for the Federal Writers’ Project. As a professor at Howard University, Brown influenced black literary studies through his literary criticisms and seminars and his role as a mentor to literary figures of the next generations. Through letters to and from Sterling Brown and manuscripts, this thesis argues that Brown’s poetry, publications and …

Slavery - Kentucky (Mss 45), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 45. Photocopy of Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves (1941), transcriptions of oral interviews which recount many aspects of being a slave in nineteenth century Kentucky. The interviews were conducted during the 1930s, part of a Federal Writers’ Project funded by the Works Progress Administration project and administered by the Library of Congress.

Clark, Thomas Dionysius, 1903-2005 (Sc 891), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 891. Letter, 30 September 1985, written by Thomas Dionysius Clark, Lexington, Kentucky, to Connie Mills, Bowling Green Kentucky, regarding his association with the Historical Records Survey Project in Kentucky, 1935-1936.

The Federal Writers' Project In Oregon, 1935-1942: A Case Study, Thomas James Ptacek

Dissertations and Theses

The Federal Writers’ Project was created in 1935 as part of the Works Progress Administration. This project represented an example of the highest evolution of work relief philosophy of the New Deal during the depression of the 1930's. Unlike previous work relief programs, the Federal Writers' Project sought to employ people in their chosen profession. This task was accomplished with the establishment of writers' projects in each state under the guidance of a national office. The major goal of these individual projects was to research, write and edit a state guidebook. This current study surveys previous research on this program …

Pioneer Recollections - Nebraska Folklore, Federal Writers' Project

Special Collections

Produced by the Federal Writers' Project in Nebraska

"These reminiscences of life in Nebraska during the 1870s and 1880s have been obtained through personal interviews with pioneers by members of the Nebraska Writers' Project."

Includes several stories about pranks, information on pioneer remedies and medicine, as well as tales of a more historical nature.

Statement on Harmful Material: Materials in UNK Archives and Special Collections are historical in nature and reflect the society in which they were produced. As such, they may contain racial, gender, sexual, religious, and other language and imagery that are offensive by today's standards. The documents, …