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The banner for the Auburn Engineers, Inc. website is created from artwork from the Works Progress Administration.  On May 6, 1935, the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) was created to help provide economic relief to the citizens of the United States who were suffering through the Great Depression. The artistic community had already become inspired during the 1920s and '30s by the revitalization of the Italian Renaissance fresco style by the inspired creations of Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueriros.

Certain visionary U.S. politicians decided to combine the creativity of the new art movements with the values of the American people. The

"Manufacture of Plowshares in Moline" Moline, Illinois Edward Millman, 1937

Federal Art Project was one of the divisions of the W.P.A. created under Federal Project One. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had made several attempts prior to the F.A.P. to provide employment for artists on relief, namely the Public Works of Art Project (P.W.A.P.) which operated from 1933 to 1934 and the Treasury Department Section of Painting and Sculpture which was created in 1934 after the demise of the P.W.A.P. However, it was the F.A.P. which provided the widest reach, creating over 5,000 jobs for artists and producing over 225,000 works of art for the American people.

It is this legacy of the thousands of workers who labored at their craft for little money but great pride which we have to inspire us today. Although many of these works of art have been destroyed or stolen, those that remain must be preserved. They stand as a reminder of a time in our country?s history when dreams were not allowed to be destroyed by economic disaster.

Nancy Lorance has created a website, www.wpamurals.com, to preserve this important piece of America's cultural history. Nancy's site catalogs and provides photographs of many W.P.A. murals throughout the country. The images below are some of Auburn Engineers' favorites. We hope you find these images enjoyable and useful and we encourage you to visit www.wpamurals.com and discover favorites of your own.

"Mining in Illinois" Moline, Illinois William Schwartz, 1937 "Oil Fields of Graham" Graham, Texas Alexandre Hogue, 1939 "Early Spanish Caballeros" Los Banos, California Lew E. Davis, 1940 "Grape Pickers" Saint Helena, California Lew Keller, 1942 "Early Clock Making" Thomaston, Connecticut Suzanne McCullough, 1939 "Agriculture and Industries of Ventura" Ventura, California Gordon K. Grant, 1938

The images and information is used with the permission of Nancy Lorance and the United States Postal Service.