Arts of the Great Depression //

This is a guide to library materials that will help students in LAPI 933: Arts of the Great Depression, complete their research assignments. If you have questions about this topic please contact Sara MacDonald in the Greenfield Library or the Music Librarian.

If you are interested in this topic, you may also find the subject guide on Communication to be very helpful.

The first place to look when beginning research on a topic is in reference material: specialized dictionaries, encyclopedias or handbooks. These allow you to check names, dates and places, find additional information, look up unknown terms, and check for the proper spelling of words. They are particularly helpful for finding basic background information on a topic, and are often the only place many students may need to look to find answers to their questions. They may include bibliographies (lists of additional materials on a topic, usually considered by the author to be the best materials on that topic) that you can use to find other materials.

Call numbers are for the Greenfield Library unless otherwise indicated.

St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
Greenfield REF E169.1 .S764 2000 v. 1-5

The WPA Guide to Philadelphia / compiled by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; with a new preface by E. Digby Baltzell; and an introduction by Richard J. Webster. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988.
A reprint of a 1937 guide to Philadelphia. Not about the WPA, but a product of the WPA Federal Writers' Project.Greenfield REF F158.18 .P46 1988

Daily Life Through History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Pub. Group, 2007- .
http://0-dailylife2.abc-clio.com.catalog.library.uarts.edu
An encyclopedia covering what daily life was like in the United States, broken down by broad time periods. Many primary source documents!

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. Editors, Tom Pendergast, Sara Pendergast. Detroit, MI: St. James Press, c2000.
Greenfield REF PN1997.8 .I58 2000 v. 1-4

Volume 1: Films; Volume 2: Directors; Volume 3: Actors and Actresses; Volume 4: Writers and Production Artists.
Great place to look up directors such as Preston Sturges and films such as "Sullivan's Travels".

International Encyclopedia of Dance: A Project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc.. Editor, Selma Jeanne Cohen; area editors, George Dorris ... [et al.]: consultants, Thomas F. Kelly ... [et al.]. NY: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Greenfield REF GV1585 .I586 1998 v. 1-6
Check the index in volume 6 for your topic. This title is also available as an online subscription on the library's Reference Sources Online page. If you are not on campus, you will be prompted to log in with your UArts email name and password.

Encyclopedia of Radio. NY: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004.
Greenfield REF TK6544 .M84 2004 v. 1-3
Check the index in volume 3 for your topic.

Encyclopedia of World Sport. Editors, David Levinson and Karen Christensen. NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Greenfield REF GV567 .E55 1999

American Chronicle: Seven Decades in American Life, 1920-1989. NY: Crown, 1990.
Greenfield REF E169.1 .G664 1990
Check the index for Roosevelt, New Deal, WPA, etc.

Chronicle of the 20th Century. London; NY: Dorling Kindersley, 1995.
Greenfield REF D422 .C53 1995

The New York Times Guide to the Arts of the 20th Century. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2002.
Greenfield REF NX456 .N49 2002 v. 1-4
This 4-volume set contains reprints of New York Times articles and reviews from 1900-1999 related to all the arts. An excellent resource for finding a primary source. Use the index in volume 4 to look up your topic.

This Fabulous Century. By the editors of Time-Life Books. New York: [1969-70]
Greenfield REF E161 .T55
A decade-by-decade look at American life.

Our Times: The Illustrated History of the 20th Century. Editor in chief, Lorraine Glennon. Atlanta: Turner Pub. ; Kansas City, MO: Distributed by Andrews and McMeel, c1995.
Greenfield REF D422 .O89 1995

Use the University Libraries catalog to find books, videos, CDs, scores, journal titles, etc. To locate all of the materials the library holds on a topic, it is most efficient to search by Subject. Use the following subject headings in the online catalog. Be careful to follow the exact spelling and form. These subject headings are standard and are used in most libraries. Because government agencies are also publishers, some of them are listed here by author as well as subject.

ADVERTISING--UNITED STATES--HISTORY
MAGAZINE DESIGN
MAGAZINE ILLUSTRATION
MURAL PAINTING AND DECORATION
MURAL PAINTING AND DECORATION, AMERICAN
POLITICAL POSTERS
POPULAR CULTURE--UNITED STATES--HISTORY--20TH CENTURY
POSTERS--20TH CENTURY
POSTERS--HISTORY
PULP LITERATURE

DEPRESSIONS
DEPRESSIONS--1929--UNITED STATES
STOCK MARKET CRASH, 1929
FEDERAL AID TO THE ARTS
Author search: FEDERAL ART PROJECT
Subject search: FEDERAL ART PROJECT
Author search: FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT (U.S.)
Subject search: FEDERAL THEATRE PROJECT (U.S.)
Author search: FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
Subject search: WRITER'S PROGRAM (U.S.)
NEW DEAL, 1933-39
Author search: UNITED STATES. FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES--CIVILIZATION--20TH CENTURY
Subject search: UNITED STATES. FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES. WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
Author search: UNITED STATES. WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES. WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
UNITED STATES--ECONOMIC CONDITIONS--1918-1945
UNITED STATES--SOCIAL CONDITIONS
UNITED STATES--SOCIAL CONDITIONS--1933-1945
UNITED STATES--SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS
UNITED STATES--SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS--1918-1945

Magazine and journal articles will always be the best place to look for current information on your topic. Periodical indexes are research tools that allow you to search for articles in journals and magazines.

Go to the library's Article Databases and Indexes page for a list of the UArts Libraries' subscription indexes. The WPA and the Depression are wide-ranging topics; ask a librarian to help you select the right one for your topic.

I've found articles I want to read. Now what?
There are different ways to find an article once you retrieve a citation in the index:

  • See if there is a link in the database you're using to the full-text article and download it or e-mail it to yourself.

  • Check to see if our library holds the journal title. Look up the journal title or the ISSN*** in the catalog and look at the holdings.

    • ***What is an ISSN? ISSN stands for International Standard Serial Number and is a unique number for a magazine or journal (not individual articles, but the magazine/journal title itself). You can use it in the UArts Libraries catalog and in many periodical indexes and databases. Searching with a number is much more precise than typing out a long title.

  • Use interlibrary loan to request materials not owned by the UArts Libraries.

  • See what other libraries in the area hold the journal.

Style Manuals: Citing Your Sources

When you find information on a topic, no matter what format it takes (book, journal, Web page), there are style manuals to show you the correct way to give cite those sources in a paper.

Below are just a few WPA-related sites that may be of interest to the University of the Arts community.

ipl2
http://www.ipl.org/
ipl2 is a great search alternative to Wikipedia and Google. Formed by the merger of the Internet Public Library and the Librarians' Index to the Internet, ipl2 maintains a database of Web links that have been carefully selected by the librarians and volunteers who form ipl2.

The American Presidency Project.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php
Created and maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara. For fireside chats and other FDR media, select the "Media" link on the home page and then Franklin D. Roosevelt. Be sure to look at the Links from the home page as well.

AP Images.
http://0-apimages.ap.org.catalog.library.uarts.edu/unsecured/logip.aspx
AP stands for Associated Press. The UArts Libraries subscribe to this service, which means you can usually get a high-resolution image. Please note that these are not public domain photos; they must be cited properly, and, if used in anything other than educational work, users must get permission to publish them.

Bowling Green State University. University Libraries. Browne Popular Culture Library. Pulp Magazines.
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/pcl/page39179.html
"The BPCL, founded in 1969 and dedicated to the acquisition and preservation of research materials on American popular culture (post 1876), is the most comprehensive repository of its kind in the United States." This is indeed one of the earliest and best-known library collections of comic books, romance and detective stories, and the like. Great starting point! Be sure to read "About the Collections".

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/
"The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is America's first presidential library -- and the only one used by a sitting president. It was conceived and built under President Roosevelt's direction and opened to the public in 1941. The Library's mission is to foster research and education on the life and times of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, and their continuing impact on contemporary life."--from "About the FDR Presidential Library"

Library of Congress: American History: Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945
http://www.loc.gov/topics/content.php?subcat=11
"These pages link to selected collection content available online at the Library of Congress, arranged by broad categories." One of the best things about Web sites from the Library of Congress is that they're free AND they're authoritative.

National Archives and Records Administration
http://www.archives.gov/
A monster site! "The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever." from "About the National Archives and Records Administration". Numerous online exhibits, including "A New Deal for the Arts".

JavaScript disabled or chat unavailable.
JavaScript disabled or chat unavailable.