Description: Dated January 1938, this photograph shows the Colonel Edwin F. Brown Memorial Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. The Colonel Edwin F. Brown Memorial Hospital was a 900 bed hospital constructed at the Dayton Soldiers' Home. Dedicated on June 21, 1931, it was constructed as the need for more hospital beds became an increasing concern. The Dayton Soldiers' Home, originally known as the Central Branch of The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (NHDVS), was made possible by congressional legislation signed by President Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1865. The Central Branch was one of the original three branches that served the disabled Veterans of the Civil War. National focus was placed on the hospital, which opened in 1870 and was widely regarded as the best hospital in the United States at that time. National focus was also placed on the Home Church since it was the first permanent church constructed by the U.S. Government. As healthcare technology advanced, the focus shifted away from providing a home like environment to becoming a modern healthcare facility. Today, it is the site of the Dayton VA Medical Center. 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_B09F05_031_001
Subjects: Veteran's hospitals--Ohio--Dayton; Soldiers' homes--Ohio--Dayton; Military Ohio; Health care facilities
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)