1. Works Progress Administration (WPA)
Date Enacted: April 8, 1935
Date Dissolved: June 30, 1943
Purpose: Program that gave work to millions of unemployed workers. These people worked on public construction projects like schools, post offices, and bridges. There was also an arts program that employed painters, sculptors, actors, and photographers. These artists worked on things like murals, posters, and other public art projects.

2. New Orleans Public Library, Alvar Branch
The WPA program was highly effective and is responsible for thousands of roads, bridges, and other facilities still in use in America today.
New Orleans Public Library, Alvar Branch
1940
2015

3. Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood

4. Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles

5. The WPA's arts program produced thousands of pieces of art across the United States. This mural is an example. It was painted by Howard Norton Cook in 1936 at the US Post Office & Courthouse in Pittsburgh, PA.
“Steel Industry”

6. More WPA art examples...

7. The WPA provided 8 million jobs for Americans between 1935 and 1943.
BREAKING NEWS:
UNEMPLOYMENT DOWN!

8. Funding was shifted to the war effort.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the subsequent American entry into World War II, the Works Progress Administration was dissolved.
Funding was shifted to the war effort.