Description: This photograph shows the business block in Akron, Ohio, located on the northwest corner of Howard and Market Streets. Akron was originally laid out in 1825 and in 1841 became the seat of Summit County. The name came from a Greek word meaning "an elevation" or "point." Originally, the community was located slightly south of its present location, in modern-day South Akron. Many of the town's earliest residents were Irish migrants employed to build the nearby Ohio and Erie Canal. 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_B02F01_004_1
Subjects: Hardware stores--United States; Akron (Ohio)--Buildings, structures, etc.--Pictorial works.
Places: Akron (Ohio); Summit County (Ohio)