Robin D. G. Kelley is a Professor of American History at UCLA and is completing a book on journalist Grace Halsell. In a piece for The Nation titled, “We’re Getting These Murals All Wrong,” Robin D.G. Kelley makes a case for using… read more
In a San Francisco Chronicle September 7 story, Gary Kamiya examines the built legacy of the New Deal in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration put Americans to work on the nation’s infrastructure…. read more
The American Guide Series, produced by the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) between 1937 and 1942, is one of the best-known projects of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration (WPA). Written as a collection of travel guides, the series included suggested… read more
A thousand acres of shifting sand with clusters of old-growth live oak were the raw materials for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. By the 1870s the dunes had been transformed into a Victorian-era commons for the burgeoning city. San Francisco’s… read more
Located in one of the City’s most beautiful Beaux-Arts buildings, the landmark Surrogate’s Court at 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan’s Civic Center, are the Municipal Archives and Municipal Library. Here the City preserves and makes available to the public the… read more
I had to think hard when a reporter recently asked me what most surprised me about what I’ve learned about the New Deal. After a pause, I replied “The importance of aesthetics.” My response was primed by the first sentence… read more
Click on the images below to enlarge. Arnautoff at work at GW High School, Courtesy of the History Center, San Francisco Public Library Victor Arnautoff was one of the most prolific artists of the New Deal. Born in Russia… read more
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sen. Dianne Feinstein told the San Francisco School Board that to cover up the George Washington High School Mural would be “to deny our past and to fail our students.” Read the San Francisco Chronicle story here. Photo:… read more
Several German media outlets have published stories about the struggle to conserve the Victor Arnautoff mural at the George Washington High School in San Francisco. https://www.spiegel.de/lebenundlernen/schule/san-francisco-streitet-ueber-fresken-mit-george-washington-sklaven-und-ureinwohnern-a-1282485.html https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/heute/bilder-spalten-san-francisco-streit-um-us-gemaelde-mit-sklaven-100.html https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/ausland/usa/id_86288404/san-francisco-streitet-ueber-historische-wandgemaelde-in-schule.html