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Here’s NEW ENGLAND!

ON THE ROAD WITH THE WPA

BY ERICA LOME, PH.D.

Here’s New England cover, title page, back cover, and back flap

n the 1930s, no road trip across America was complete without a schools, refugee centers, and libraries on military bases, as well as being
travel guide from the widely popular American Guide Series, prominently exhibited in bookshops, department stores, hotels,
Ipublished by the Federal Writers’ Project. Intended to stimulate the transportation depots, and advertisements. What made these
economy and boost national pride, these travel guides featured guidebooks especially intriguing was that many of the contributors
history-laden itineraries, photographs of major cultural icons, and were anonymous, including photographers and essayists. By not
directed access to new routes across the county. allowing any one voice to dominate the tour’s
These highly collectible guides still retain their narrative, popular opinion grew around the idea that
charm, especially Here’s New England: A Guide to these texts were truly democratic.
Vacationland (1939). This volume, published to
great success, is a fascinating artifact of the New Deal Road Trips to the Past
era and represents a bygone era of travel.
While many of the individual city and state entries
of the American Guide Series emphasized industry,
Establishment of the WPA ethnic diversity, and modern architecture, those who
Starting early in his term as President amid the worked on the regional and highway guides placed
Great Depression, President Franklin Delano value in orienting citizens towards locating in the
Roosevelt took measures to jumpstart relief for past what could be valuable in the present. The
citizens, providing governmental aid for all facets of most vocal advocate for this agenda was Katherine
American life. The New Deal, as it was termed, Kellock, Tours Editor of the Federal Writers’ Project,
continued to shore up the American lifestyle over the who believed the road could carry important cultural
course of eight years. images. She also fought for a more standardized
After the initial efforts put forth, the Great approach for motor tours, establishing north-to-south
Depression continued across the country, so in the and east-to-west rules. Kellock’s form is observable in
spring of 1935, Roosevelt launched the Second New how the tours were constructed, chopping up states
Deal (1935-1938) with the establishment of the to emphasize landscape features and allowing for a
Works Projects Administration (WPA) giving jobs to smooth and cohesive route from one destination to
people related to federally sponsored projects that Poster advertising the next.
provided work for writers, artists, and photographers. American Guide Week Published in Boston by Houghton Mifflin, Here’s
The Federal Writers’ Project was part of the New New England was a regional guide featuring maps,
Deal’s arts program known as Federal One. Headed by Henry Alsberg, images, itineraries, and thematic essays on the history and culture of
its major claim to fame was the American Guide Series, which each state. The dust jacket proclaimed: “This regional volume is unique
produced over four hundred travel guides to the states, major cities, in the series in that it covers more than one state. It would be useful to
highways, and regions of America. a traveler making an automobile tour of the New England region.
The WPA employed 6,500 staff through state-sponsored programs It provides an excellent overview and includes some history, lore,
to produce these guidebooks, and volumes were distributed to public and photographs.”

26 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles