For more learning and educational activities, visit the Arizona History Digital Hub at azhs.org.
Pioneer Museum and Riordan Mansion State Historic Park, Flagstaff | Arizona Heritage Center at Papago Park, Tempe
Arizona History Museum, Downtown History Museum and Fort Lowell Museum, Tucson
Sanguinetti House Museum & Gardens, Yuma
CAE20-020 04/20
THE WORKS PROGRESS
ADMINISTRATION IN ARIZONA
During the Great Depression
in the 1930s, many people
lost their jobs. President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
enacted the NEW DEAL to
help the country recover from
the stock market crash and all
the nancial hardship that
followed. Two of the federal
programs created
under the New Deal
to help people nd
jobs were the
Works Progress
Administration
(WPA) and the Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC).
These programs created
employment for many
Americans from 1935 to 1943.
In Arizona the WPA and CCC
worked on many projects:
building schools, roads, dams,
National Parks and
Monuments; creating art for
the public; and preserving
folklore, songs and stories for
future generations.
Visit THE LIVING NEW
DEAL’S website to see many
of the projects the WPA and
CCC worked on in Arizona.
Did any WPA or CCC projects take place near your home? Which ones?
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Many projects the WPA and CCC worked on improved infrastructure in
Arizona. What does infrastructure mean? What are some examples of
projects that improved or created infrastructure in Arizona?
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Many CCC projects focused on building or improving National Parks
and Monuments. Which Parks and Monuments in Arizona did CCC
workers build or improve?
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The WPA also employed artists
from various disciplines in the
following programs:
FEDERAL ART PROJECT
FEDERAL MUSIC PROJECT
FEDERAL WRITERS’
PROJECT
FEDERAL THEATER
PROJECT
FEDERAL DANCE PROJECT
HISTORICAL RECORDS
SURVEY
Which WPA Project would you want to work for?
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PHILIP C. CURTIS was an artist during the Great Depression. The WPA
sent him to Phoenix, Arizona to start the Phoenix Art Center (now the
PHOENIX ART MUSEUM). Research Philip C. Curtis. What were some
of his favorite subjects to paint? What style of art did Curtis often paint?
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Do some research on the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS’S website and nd
an example or two of art that was created by artists employed by the
WPA in the 1930s or 1940s.
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For more learning and educational activities, visit the Arizona History Digital Hub at azhs.org.
Pioneer Museum and Riordan Mansion State Historic Park, Flagstaff | Arizona Heritage Center at Papago Park, Tempe
Arizona History Museum, Downtown History Museum and Fort Lowell Museum, Tucson
Sanguinetti House Museum & Gardens, Yuma
CAE20-020 04/20
Further Research
If you’re interested in
this topic, visit the Arizona
State Archives’ DIGITAL
ARIZONA LIBRARY (DAZL)
to read historic letters
(primary sources) from
Governor Moeur about
the work the WPA and
CCC did in Arizona.