Blair Hall at Wittenberg College photograph   Save
Ohio Guide Collection
Description: This is a photograph of Blair Hall on the Wittenberg College Campus in Springfield, Ohio. Blair Hall houses the Education Department and teacher training center. The building has recently been remodeled and offers seminar, lecture, and meeting rooms, as well as high-tech labs and production rooms. A note on the photograph's reverse reads "Blair Hall (teacher training Center). Springfield." Wittenberg College was founded in 1845 by a group of Lutheran evangelicals, primarily Reverend Ezra Keller who became the college's first president, serving 1844-1848. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B13F06_025_001
Subjects: Springfield (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.; Education; Universities and colleges; Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio; Winter
Places: Springfield (Ohio); Clark County (Ohio)