Museum of the City of New York

Federal Art Project

The Work Projects Administration (WPA) was created in 1935 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, to provide work relief for the unemployed. Under the auspices of the WPA, the Federal Art Project (FAP) was created specifically to aid visual artists by paying wages for their creative endeavors. In 1943, the Museum of the City of New York received a donation from the WPA/FAP of the negatives from twelve agency-sponsored photographic projects, many of which document the social situation of the ordinary people during the Great Depression. They include Arnold Eagle and David Robbins's "One Third of a Nation," documenting poverty in New York; Arnold Eagle's "Sabbath Studies”; Sid Grossman's Harlem project; several projects by Andrew Herman, including work on the garment industry, outdoor markets, Coney Island, the construction of the Sixth Avenue subway, and other New York scenes; a project on food in New York by Sol Libshon; David Robbins's study of the waterfront; and city scene projects by George Herlick and Mark Nadir.