The Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP), part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal to stimulate the economy and create jobs during the Great Depression, employed thousands of artists between 1935 and 1943 to create artworks for public spaces. This groundbreaking democratic experiment celebrated and supported American art and artists by providing a source of income, enhancing public buildings, and enriching the lives of Americans in the throes of the Great Depression. The Art Commission reviewed hundreds of Federal Art Project commissions during this period, including murals, sculpture and mosaics. A significant portion of the WPA/FAP commissions in our collection were installed in public health and hospital facilities. There is a noticeable shift in theme and tone depending on the location of murals. Murals in children's wards often focused on nursery rhymes and fanciful themes, while those in nurses' recreation rooms were "relaxing" and focused on familial scenes. Murals in doctors' recreation rooms focused on the history and progress of medicine, while those in psychiatric wards sought to provide therapy for mental distress.

Shops on Graham Avenue at Grand Street: Price & Quality Malt Extract; Shoe Shine & Hat Cleaning Parlor; Sam Aronoff Shoes. September 11, 1930. Graham Avenue has long been a commercial thoroughfare in Williamsburg. The malt extract storefront at No. 282 Graham is a symptom of Prohibition: many beer producers shifted to production of nonalcoholic malt extract while beer sales were banned. The building was sold at auction in 1880 and later became a meeting place for Thirteenth Assembly District Democrats. Today, the building’s frame remains intact but its brick exterior has been painted over.

The Williamsburg Houses were the largest and most expensive project built under the auspices of the PWA at their completion in 1937. The complex was realized by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and received funding from the Federal Public Works Administration (PWA). An American Institute of Architectures regards the Williamsburg Houses as “the best public housing project ever built in New York." According to plans from 1935, the project cost a total of 12.5 million dollars to complete. Siting for the property was decided by a slum clearance committee, which was formed in 1933 under the PWA to study housing conditions throughout the city. The committee decided "where the most good could be done in wholesale clearance work," eventually settling on a nine-block area bound by the street of Maujer, Scholes, and Leonard and Bushwick Avenue as an optimal clean slate to build the Williamsburg Houses.

Roman Catholic Church of St. Nicholas, June 1, 1937. St. Nicholas (center, at the intersection of Powers and Olive Streets) formed the center of the 19th century German immigrant community in Williamsburg. The 1866 church building seen in this photograph was converted to a school run by Dominican nuns who lived on the grounds. While the storefronts are gone and the remaining buildings have been re-sided, the school, without its belfry, still stands.

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, viewed from the site cleared for the construction of the Williamsburg Houses. December 22, 1935. The St. John’s congregation was founded in 1844, as a coalition of German Protestant worshipers. In 1853, the church adopted a Lutheran doctrine and continued to grow as a fixture of Williamsburg’s German community, with members worshipping at a church at nearby Wyckoff Street (now Ten Eyck Street). Construction on a new Gothic church began in 1883 to accommodate the congregation’s growth. In the early 20th century, German immigrants were arriving in Williamsburg in smaller numbers, leading St. John’s parishioners to establish a satellite mission in Glendale, Queens. From mid-1930s on, the continued demographic changes in the neighborhood and the construction of the adjacent Williamsburg Houses led to the decline of the original Williamsburg Church. In 1953, the original congregation shifted to the Glendale mission. At the same time, The Lutheran Church of St. John the Evangelist, a new congregation, was established among local worshippers. Today, the church continues to conduct Lutheran services and shares its facilities with Kingsland Ward a performing arts organization best known for its immersive theater project “Then She Fell.”

Sackett & Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Co., 1952. The Sackett & Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company had a problem. One of their publications was an illustrated humor magazine called Judge. The weather in New York, hot an humid, made the pages expand and the color of the graphics bleed. The moisture also made it difficult for the inked pages to dry in an appropriate timeframe. The company looked to a recent Cornell graduate named Willis Haviland Carrier who had developed a method to dry and cool the air. His invention controlled temperatures, humidity, air circulation, and ventilation and cleaned the air. In 1902 Sackett & Wilhelms installed Carrier's machinery, their publications dried better and faster and modern air conditioning was born! The factory building still stands today and is the home of the International Studio & Curatorial Program, a visual arts residency program.

Graham and Metropolitan Avenues, Williamsburg, Brooklyn; shot by Berenice Abbott. June 1, 1937. The corner building includes intricate cornice work with raised panel, dated 1893, topped with a lute sculpture, and a hipped pyramidal tower. Today, the wooden clapboards have been replaced by vinyl siding and the facade has been stripped of any ornamentation. At lower left is the entrance to the Graham Street Station of the BMT Canarsie Line (today’s L train).