Description: Dated 1939, this photograph shows a boat named The Craftsman under construction at the American Ship Building Company. The American Ship Building Company was originally based in Cleveland, Ohio, as Cleveland Shipbuilding in 1888, and became the American Ship Building Company in 1900. There were also ship yards in Toledo and Loraine, Ohio, and the company expanded to other nearby states including New York, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin at the start of World War I. The American Ship Building Company was the most prominent ship yard for constructing American ships for World War II. 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_B12F01_004_001
Subjects: American Ship Building Company; Cargo ships; Transportation--Ohio--History.; Shipping industry; World War I; Military Ohio
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)