Description: Dated ca. 1930-1939, this photograph shows pipes for an artesian well with a note on its reverse which reads “Pipes for artesian well. Shows the different series of rock. 1) Top Soil 2) Sub Soil 3) Lime stone 4) Shale 5) Sandstone 6) Shale 7) Limestone 8) Granite. Cachment at end of pipe near sandstone.” Many farms and isolated houses in the 1930s depended on their own artesian wells for water. An artesian well is a deep drilled well through which water is forced upward under pressure. The water in an artesian well flows from an aquifer, which is under a layer of porous rock or sediment. This accumulated water has hydrostatic pressure and force which results in the water rising from the ground at the bottom of the hill or higher area. 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_B11F04_14_001
Subjects: Water wells; Artesian wells; Rural life; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Ohio