Expedition

During the 1930s, millions of Americans struggled to sustain themselves economically due to the manifold challenges of the Great Depression.

The Emergency Relief Appropriations Act of 1935 was passed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to create consistent government jobs that put unemployed Americans back to work. Of all such ventures, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was among the most impactful due to its hearty budget and many years in operation. The WPA provided many cash-strapped American families with an income, in addition to equipping workers with skills and contributing to national infrastructure, at a time when unemployment reached nearly one-fourth of the population.

The WPA also reached into the arts and academic fields. At museums, and at the Penn Museum in particular, a number of WPA projects ranging from artifact analysis to bibliographic work and mural painting were carried out by workers who were paid by the WPA. Projects involving science were provided opportunities to deploy laboratory methods on a large scale, leading to a legacy of research that extended far beyond the end of this Depressionera program, and the Museum’s ceramics laboratories serve as a prominent example.