“Whether in our collective romanticized memory, covering our bodies as we sleep, or handing on museum gallery walls, quilts are potent objects, and the US government harnessed that power to relieve the impact of the Great Depression.”
— Janneken Smucker
A New Deal for Quilts (University of Nebraska Press, 2023) explores the ways quilts became a powerful form of communication in government relief and public relations efforts and as expressions of quilt makers hopes for better times. Author Janneken Smucker, herself a 5th generation quilt maker, is professor of History at West Chester University in Philadelphia, specializing in digital and public history and material culture. FREE. REGISTER
Most people are familiar with the New Deal's legacy in the visual arts, but the soundtracks left by its folk music collecting activities have remained largely unknown. Through the Music Unit hidden within the Resettlement Administration and the WPA's California Folk Music Project, pioneering collector Sidney Robertson Cowell amassed hundreds of recordings, providing new insights into multicultural America.
While a seasonal ranger at Grand Teton National Park, Doug Leen salvaged a New Deal-era park poster destined for the burn pile. It led him on a decades-long quest to find and preserve the original thirteen WPA park poster designs and spurred the creation of Ranger Doug Enterprises. Learn about Doug’s new book, Rediscovering the WPA Posters of Our National Parks. FREE. REGISTER
The Living New Deal documents the vast legacy the New Deal (1933-1942) left to America
and the spirit of public service that inspired it.
We welcome your support.
Thursday, February 29, 2024. 5pm-6pm PT
Tuesday, March 26, 2023, 5pm-6pm PT
