WPA: Works Progress Administration

While doing my research for the Culinary Trail, mention of the Works Progress Administration or WPA has come up quite frequently. Eudora Welty (among other notable writers, artists and photographers) worked for the program in the 1930s, which is where she began photographing her now famous rural Mississippi scenes and people.

Recently while doing some Christmas shopping, I bought the book America Eats!: On the Road With the WPA by Pat Willard. The author revived the essays and photographs compiled that were to be published by the WPA and went on a personal journey in the process.

The book opens with a diatribe of how people always say America has no real culture (I have to admit I used to be one of them) being such a young country. Admittedly, we are a "mutt" of a country, so to speak, with the hundreds of ethnicities that make up our cultural landscape; but, ours is a strong cultural identity founded on pride in our individual ethnic heritages and embracing the new and ever-changing American life and landscape.

Works Progress Administration was FDR's 1939 New Deal initiative which gave millions of people work making buildings, bridges, theater, art and music. The WPA was rooted in the values of community and creativity, and helped to keep the fire of human dignity burning through the darkest years of the Great Imposters.

The funding eventually ran out and the program was shut down; but, what resulted was first-hand, in-depth accounts of America's culture and communities. Important research and works of art were conducted in the fields of visual art, literature and music. It's amazing to me that people thought this work was useless and irrelevant because it is a relative gold mine of American culture.

After doing a small scale search on the internet to see what all was out there and quite a few websites are there dedicated to WPA post office murals, like this one in Amory, Mississippi. There is a list of murals that can be found across throughout Mississippi, too.

I'm absolutely fascinated by this program, need to read more about it and wonder why something like this couldn't be established in present day to help promote and preserve our culture – and create jobs (I guess the government has enough debt already…but still, it would be valuable). Think of the amount of work and research that could be accomplished to continue to preserve our culture – especially in the digital age where so many people are disconnected from their home communities and more people, than ever before, cling to community values, family heritage and religion (or turn from organized religion). I'll write in more detail soon once I finish reading the book.