Federal Writers' Project

The Federal Writers Project (FWP) was a New Deal initiative under the Works Progress Administration (WPA) that oversaw the collection of what amounted to oral histories giving work to down on their luck journalists, authors, artists, asking them to go out and document American life and culture. The FWP produced a number of state guides as well as a Slave Narrative Collection which includes recorded interviews of individuals who had survived, what they called, "slave days." A number of these state guides are available for check as print works and ebooks at Fond du Lac Public Library. While many of the interviews and more information on the Federal Writers Project are housed on the Library of Congress website

Updated May 19, 2025
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Lay my burden down : a folk history of slavery
Federal Writers' Project.
Paper Book
The WPA guide to New York City : the Federal Writers' Project guide to 1930s New York
Paper Book
This tour guide for time travelers offers New York lovers and 1930s buffs an endlessly fascinating look at life as it was lived in the days when a trolley ride cost five cents, a room at the Plaza was $7.50, and the new World's Fair was the talk of the town. Hailed by the New York Times as one of...
Milwaukee in the 1930s : a Federal Writers Project City Guide
Buenker, John D.
Paper Book
What would it be like to take an intensive tour of Milwaukee as it was during the late 1930s--at the confluence of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the run-up to World War II? That is precisely what the participants in the Federal Writers Project did while researching their Guide...
The WPA guide to Wisconsin : [the Federal Writers' Project guide to 1930's Wisconsin]
Paper Book
At the height of the Depression, the government put thousands of writers to work for the Works Progress Administration. Out of their efforts came the American Guide series, the first comprehensive guidebooks to the people, resources, and traditions of each state in the nation.  ...
Nebraska, a guide to the Cornhusker State
Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of Nebraska.
Paper Book
During the Great Depression of the 1930s thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all of the states in the U.S. These volumes that were produced became known as the American Guide Series. This series has been described as...
The WPA guide to New York City : the Federal Writers' Project guide to 1930s New York
Paper Book
This tour guide for time travelers offers New York lovers and 1930s buffs an endlessly fascinating look at life as it was lived in the days when a trolley ride cost five cents, a room at the Plaza was $7.50, and the new World's Fair was the talk of the town. Hailed by the New York Times as one of...
Maryland, a guide to the Old Line State
Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Maryland.
Paper Book
During the Great Depression of the 1930s thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all of the states in the U.S. These volumes that were produced became known as the American Guide Series. This series has been described as...
Michigan, a guide to the Wolverine state
Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration in the State of Michigan.
Paper Book
During the Great Depression of the 1930s thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all of the states in the U.S. These volumes that were produced became known as the American Guide Series. This series has been described as...
Oregon; end of the trail
Writers' Program (Or.)
Paper Book
During the Great Depression of the 1930s thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all of the states in the U.S. These volumes that were produced became known as the American Guide Series. This series has been described as...
The Oregon trail; the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean
Federal Writers' Project.
Paper Book
New Hampshire, a guide to the Granite state
Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of New Hampshire.
Paper Book
During the Great Depression of the 1930s thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all of the states in the U.S. These volumes that were produced became known as the American Guide Series. This series has been described as...
https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection/
This collection of life histories consists of approximately 2,900 documents, compiled and transcribed by more than 300 writers from 24 states, working on the Folklore Project of the Federal Writers’ Project, a New Deal jobs program that was part of the U.S. Works Progress (later Work Projects) Administration (WPA) from 1936 to 1940. Typically 2,000-15,000 words in length, the documents vary in form from narratives to dialogues to reports to case histories. They chronicle vivid life stories of Americans who lived at the turn of the century and include tales of meeting Billy the Kid, surviving the 1871 Chicago fire, pioneer journeys out West, grueling factory work, and the immigrant experience. Writers hired by this Depression-era work project included Ralph Ellison, Nelson Algren, May Swenson, and many others. The documents often describe the informant’s physical appearance, family, education, income, occupation, political views, religion and mores. Pseudonyms are often substituted for individuals
https://www.loc.gov/collections/slave-narratives-from-the-federal-writers-project-1936-to-1938/about-this-collection/

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers\' Project, 1936-1938 contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers\' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves. In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the originals 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress.


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