Description: This is a photograph of Ahaz Merchant's 1835 rendering which was the first accurate, published map of Cleveland, rectifying British Lieutenant Henry Bayfield's 1817-1818 "Sketch of the Mouth of the Cayanoga River." The Village of Cleveland planned for its eventual growth in a 1797 survey; the two-acre, ten-acre, and hundred-acre lots then defined are visible in Merchant's map. The map provided fodder for real estate speculation, especially on the west side of the river, in Ohio City. 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_B04F10_42_01
Subjects: Cleveland (Ohio)--Maps; Merchant, Ahaz; Maps.; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writers' Project
Places: Cleveland (Ohio); Cuyahoga County (Ohio)