The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) have announced plans to display Diego Rivera’s massive mural, “Pan American Unity,” at a major exhibition of the artist’s work in 2020. The mural is… read more
Franklin Roosevelt was, among many other things, a knowledgeable forester. He frequently described himself as a “grower of trees.” Long before his entrance on the political scene, he spent years reforesting his Hudson River estate at Hyde Park. As governor… read more
The first of three greenbelt towns built and owned by the federal government during the Great Depression, Greenbelt, Maryland, ten miles north of Washington, D.C. was considered “utopian” when it opened in 1937. Greenbelt’s residents had to overcome many obstacles… read more
Born in Mexico in 1905, Anita Brenner, a Jewish American writer and intellectual, lived her life on both sides of the border. Educated in Mexico and the U.S., Brenner explicated Mexican culture to Americans, offering an antidote to the biases… read more
The Works Progress Administration built Emerson’s Borough Hall in 1938-39. The Federal Art Project employed two artists, including Albert C. Haring and one unknown artist, to create murals in Borough Hall. The building has seven murals in its basement. Emerson… read more
Evan Kalish recently traveled to New Mexico where he documented dozens of New Deal projects. Here is his summary – I love exploring New Mexico: the sunsets are beautiful, the spaces are wide-open, and the New Deal is everywhere. Melrose,… read more
In 1936, the town of Lawrence, on Long Island in New York, undertook a $825,000 project to build a high school. The town completed the project thanks to funds from the Public Works Administration. The town recently restored the building’s… read more
The Living New Deal has now surpassed 14,000 mapped sites on its website (https://livingnewdeal.org/map/) and is rapidly approaching the 15,000 benchmark, with almost 14,500 sites mapped. We have also reached impressive milestones in a number of individual states: Massachusetts now… read more
On January 16, National Public Radio’s “Here & Now” featured Gray Brechin, The Living New Deal’s Project Scholar, for a segment on how the WPA changed U.S. infrastructure. In the interview, Gray gave examples of structures built by the WPA, explained the… read more
Preservationists in the Village of Greenhills, Ohio are working to save the town’s New Deal legacy. Located near Mill Creek Valley, the village was one of the three New Deal greenbelt towns built by the Resettlement Administration’s Division of Suburban… read more