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1. THE NEW DEAL AND
THE ART OF PUBLIC
PERSUASION
Designed by Kari VanKommer

2. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the WPA (Works
Progress Administration) into existence by executive order on May
6th, 1933. One of the more well known programs contained within
FDR’s “New Deal” federal relief package; the foundational purpose of
the organization was to simply get unemployed Americans back to
work during the height of the Great Great Depression. The WPA is
traditionally remembered for building thousands of roads, bridges,
public parks and buildings throughout the United States many of
which still remain and serve the public today. But In addition to it’s
impact on the American infrastructure, an often forgotten contribution
of WPA workers is the organizations promotion of arts and humanities
throughout the United States.
The Federal Arts Program or the FAP was one arm of the WPA solely
dedicated to the creation and promotion of the arts in America. One of
it’s major undertakings were the creation of promotional posters,
today known as the WPA Poster Collection. Between the years 1935
and 1943, the WAP and FAB collectively created and printed more
than 2 million posters on more than 35,000 unique subject matters. Of
those 2 million around 2,000 remain today. The largest singular
collection of these posters, around 900 in total, have been
purposefully collected and curated by the Library of Congress for
future preservation.
Between the years 1935 and 1943, the WAP and FAB collectively
created and printed more than 2 million posters on more than 35,000
unique subject matters. Of those two million produced during that
time, only around two thousand remain today. Many of these have
been purposefully collected and curated by the Library of Congress
for future preservation.
The WPA Posters created by the WPA and the FAP between 1933
Image Credit - courtesy of the US archives: Link to image.

3. Essential Question: How
did the WPA use art to
influence public opinion?
Propaganda is often
defined as a derogatory or
negative term describing
biased material intended to
persuade. There is also
often an element of
dishonesty or hidden truth
interwoven within the
definition. This DBQ would
argue that the WPA posters
should not be solely viewed
as government propaganda
because their overall intent
was not a sinister one
shrouded in secrecy or
dishonesty. The vast majority
of the posters are focused
on the promotion of good
health, travel and arts
promotion. However, some
would argue that the WPA
posters are “propaganda”
simply because they were
created with the intention to
persuade Americans from a
singular pro-government
point of view and that in and
of itself may classify them as
being a form of propaganda.
Regardless of the debate over whether these posters should be
considered propaganda or not. There are several key techniques
academics used when analyzing materials that is created to persuade
and in this DBQ these techniques will be helpful to use as well. The
most import questions to ask yourself when looking at all of the posters
in this collection are below.
I. What is the ideology and purpose of the propaganda?
II. What is the context in which the propaganda occurs?
III. Who is the propagandist?
IV. What is the structure of the propaganda organization?
V. Who is the target audience?
VI. What techniques for persuasion are being used?
VII. What audience reactions are the techniques hoping to elicit?
Image Credit - courtesy of
the Library of Congress: Link
to image.

4. As we know from modern examples, in order for a political concept
or program to be truly effective, the people must believe in the
concept. Upon its founding, the New Deal faced steep opposition
both in the political and public realms. In order for the employment
relief programs to work, the public needed to be convinced they
were serving a valid purpose and to subscribe to the ideals of
earning a wage instead of accepting charity. Some argued at the
time and to the present day that it would have been better and
cheaper for the country to simple give people the federal money
instead of having them work for it. Harry Hopkins, director of
the WPA, fiercely believed providing people the
opportunity to earn a wage did much less to destroy
their soul and the fabric of American idealism than
simple handing out the badly needed resources.
Many WPA Posters were initially dedicated to promoting the New
Deal programs and the opportunities they provided. Let’s look at a
couple examples of how the art attempted to sway public opinion in
this way.
Image Credit - courtesy of
the Library of Congress: Link
to image.
Selling the New Deal to
Americans

5. Directions:
Use the source information, your knowledge of history, and the
poster to answer the questions below.
Source: This poster was published by the Federal Art Project, in
1938.
Questions:
Who do you think is the audience for the poster?
Do you consider this poster to be propaganda?
Why or why not?
5
Image credit: ‘Forging ahead Works Progress Administration’
artist: Harry Herzog, courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Link to image.

6. Directions: Use the source
information, your knowledge of
history and the poster to answer
the questions below.
Background Information: In
order for the WPA jobs programs
to work, the state services
controlling many of the
employment relief needed healthy
able bodied people to apply to
those jobs and to be motivated to
have them. This was important for
the programs to serve their
purpose, but also for them to be
perceived by opponents of The
New Deal as being successful.
Questions:
What techniques are the
creators of this poster
using to persuade?
Would you consider one
more persuasive than the
other?
Why or why not?
Image Credit - Courtesy of the
Library of Congress: Artist Bender,
Albert M, Link to image.
Image Credit - Courtesy of the Library of
Congress: ‘Ready to serve - trained,
efficient workers--Household Service
Demonstration Project, W.P.A.’ artist:
Sara, Cleo, artist, created 1939 Link to
image.

7. Promoting American Ideals:
Literacy, Health and Safety
Directions:
Use the source information, your knowledge of history and
the poster to answer the questions below.
Source:
This poster was created by the WPA in 1940.
Questions:
What is this poster wanting people to do?
How is it attempting to persuade?
What does this tell you about 1940 in the
USA. What were some values this poster
reveals?
What would be different if it was created
today?
Image Credit - Courtesy of the Library of Congress: Link to
image.

8. Directions: Using the background and source
information, your knowledge of history and the
photograph to answer the questions below.
Background Information: These posters were created
between 1937-1940 by artists in the WPA to promote public
health in America.
Questions:
What techniques is the creator of this poster using to
persuade the audience?
Do you find this poster compelling?
Why or why not?
Encouraging Public Health
Image Credit - Courtesy of the Library of Congress: Link to
image.

9. Directions: Use the source
information, your knowledge of
history and the poster to answer the
questions below.
Sourcing Information: This image
was created in November of 1938 by
an artist in the WPA.
Questions:
Which is more powerful in
this poster- the images or
the words?
How do each of these
posters attempt to
persuade public opinion
either similarly or
differently?
Why is good parenting
important in a functioning
society?
Image Credit - Artist: Krause, Erik Hans Courtesy of
the Library of Congress: Link to image.
Encouraging Good
Parenting
Image Credit - Courtesy of the Library of
Congress: Link to image.

10. Expanding Horizons
Several of the most iconic posters in the WPA collection depict
American tourist destinations and encourage the observer to travel.
This subsection of the collection is often referred to as the WPA
National Parks Collection.
Contextualizing the National Parks Posters:
Much of the WPA work on American infrastructure focused on the
improvement of roads and facilities servicing National Parks and
recreation sites throughout the country. These posters bent on
persuading the public to explore the continental USA served several
purposes. They encouraged Americans to take advantage of the new
facilities and money being put into these parks thus raising the overall
perception of WPA project validity. By encouraging Americans with the
extra income to travel, they also hoped to affect the economic recovery
of the areas and regions supporting the tourist areas. A healthy
economy is one where people travel and spend their extra earnings
near and far. This is ultimately what the poster campaign hoped to
achieve. As a bonus the beautiful creations revealed America's natural
treasures to many who had never seen a picture of the Grand Canyon
or Yosemite National Park before the era of Television.
Image Credit - Courtesy of the Library of Congress:
link to image.

11. Questions:
How do these posters appeal to reason vs. emotions?
In your opinion are these posters effective?
What do you find most striking about the images presented?
Image Credit(s) - courtesy of the Library of
Congress: Image one, Image two.

12. 12
Compare these three images:
Questions:
Does this section of posters try to influence or
inform the public in any way?
What stylistic tools are used to connect with
the posters’ intended audience?
Which poster in this group do you think is the
most persuasive? Why?
Encouraging the
Protection Wildlife
Image Credit(s) - courtesy of the
Library of Congress: Image one,
Image two, Image three

13. Art is a powerful
medium. It can affect people
in ways that no other form of
persuasion can. Visual
stimulation can excite and
convince, amuse and anger
us.
Some may argue that the WPA
posters were a waste of
resources and materials,
created only to give desperate
people something to do. This
chapter’s intent is not to
challenge the political opinions
revolving around the New
Deal, but instead to provide an
opportunity to look back at
these posters that now serve
as an amazing resource into
our collective past. They
reveal a great deal about what
Americans thought a
functioning society would do
and how it would act. Brush
their teeth, read, take care of
their children, travel etc. The
WPA Poster project also
served as a start for many
artists who would later be
added into the cannon of great
American artists. Artists such
as Jackson Pollock, Thomas
Hart Benton, Stuart Davis, and
Grant Wood.
Regardless of the motivation
or context of creation for art.
To create as an act unto itself
is a noble endeavor, and when
Americans create, they
produce wonderful things, as
proof by these posters.
As the world changes and
continues to become more
globalized the power to
persuade public opinion
through various mediums
becomes even more
important, today on an even
larger scale. In the meantime
the WPA poster collection will
continue to serve as a time
capsule of information on the
political mechanics of that
period in American history as
well as the testament to the
American ability to create
things of great beauty and
originality even in the bleakest
of times.
To view the full WPA Collection
at the Library of Congress
please click here.

14. This project was such a great opportunity to try my hand at creating
the type of relevant history lesson that I want to include in my
curriculum as a future social studies teacher. Unfortunately, I did not
fully take advantage of it as I wish I had. Initially I struggled
narrowing down a subject, I wanted to land on something I felt a
strong personal connection to which would also be relatively simple
to construct a DBQ project around. Quickly settling on the topic of
communism and the Red Scare, I felt confident, perhaps a little too
confident. When I realized that someone had focused on that topic
last year for this project, I decided that topic would no longer work
for me. I could have carried on with the communist angle and
perhaps focused more specifically on one aspect of it such as the
Rosenbergs or the Cuban Missile Crisis, but my internal drive to be
as close to original as possible forbid me from this. Instead I
decided to switch gears entirely.
After debating various topics in my head from Civil War
Reconstruction to the often forgotten historical figure of Noah
Webster, of that dictionary we refer to from time to time (who I
discovered in my preliminary research may have been a thoroughly
unlikable fellow which is why his contributions to the founding of the
USA have largely been forgotten…) but I digress. After bouncing
around a variety of ideas after the Red Scare topic fell through, I
finally settled on focusing my DBQ on the New Deal and the various
forms of propaganda and art that came out of that time period in
American life.
This period in history is complicated and filled with difficulties and
political initiatives that mirror our own times to such a degree it is
almost unsettling. Much as President Obama has needed to sell his
ideas for recovery and change in the last six years such as the
Affordable Care Act, so FDR needed to sell his plan for getting
America out of the Great Depression. The poster collection created
by the WPA and FAP between 1933-1943 is one of the first things I
re-discovered when researching this topic. They are beautiful,
modern and striking. The have an agenda, often times more than
one and they have much to tell us about what art can do to shift
public opinion, and what those responsible for creating those
posters believed needed to be shifting.
Once I settled on a topic my drudgery through this project was not
alleviated. I did not have a focused point of view or purpose for the
posters though I know I wanted to use them. Peter Pappas helped
me collate my thoughts on what things could be asked of students
in relation to the artwork and what conclusions or inferences could
be drawn that might be helpful. My resulting DBQ project is not the
best thing I have every produced, but it is definitely a place to start.
As one of my favorite authors Elizabeth Gilbert has said “You must
be very polite with yourself when you are leaning something new.”
If I could do it again I would get started much sooner, put my head
down and find a topic I felt was original and interesting. I might have
focused on maps or the layout of cities in America or something
closely related to that. The good news is I hope to be at this for a
while and I think the benefit of DBQ questions can not be
understated, so I might just get me do-over shot after all. For now it’s
about doing the best you can and learning that procrastination does
not a stellar project make.
~ Kari VanKommer Twitter/@MissKVK | email
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15. 15

16.
Complete iBook available
free at iTunes
FROM - EXPLORING
HISTORY: VOL II

17. This eBook is a collaborative project of Peter Pappas
and his Fall 2014 Social Studies Methods Class
School of Education ~ University of Portland, Portland Ore.
Graduate and undergraduate level pre-service teachers were assigned the
task of developing an engaging research question, researching supportive
documents and curating them into a DBQ suitable for middle or high
school students.
For more on this class, visit the course blog EdMethods
For more on the assignment and work flow tap here.
Chapters in chronological order
1. The American Revolution by Scott Deal
2. The Pig War by Andy Saxton
3. Cesspool of Savagery by Michelle Murphy
4. Chemical War by Erik Nelson
5. Americans’ Perceptions of Immigration
in the 1920s by Ceci Brunning and Jenna Bunnell
6. The New Deal and the Art of Public Persuasion
by Kari VanKommer
7. Combat Soldiers in Context by Kristi Anne McKenzie
8. The Marshall Plan: Altruism or Pragmatism?
by Sam Kimerling
9. Little Rock Nine: Evaluating Historical Sources
by Christy Thomas
10. First Ladies as a Political Tool by Emily Strocher
EXPLORING HISTORY: VOL II
xvii
Engaging questions and historic
documents empower students to be
the historian in the classroom.

18. Cover image: Replica of old French globe
Date:1 January 1, 2013
Petar Milošević
Peter Pappas, editor
School of Education ~ University of Portland
His popular blog, Copy/Paste features downloads of his instructional
resources, projects and publications. Follow him at Twitter @edteck.
His other multi-touch eBooks are available at here. For an example of
one of his eBook design training workshops tap here.
CC BY-NC 3.0 Peter Pappas and Kari VanKommer, 2015
The authors take copyright infringement seriously. If any copyright holder has
been inadvertently or unintentionally overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to
remove the said material from this book at the very first opportunity.
xviiiSource