Description: Original description reads: "W.P.A. band at Linden Community Center, Dayton, Ohio, June 29, 1936. Louis Becker, director." The Federal Music Project (FMP), a WPA-sponsored federal project, was designed to give employment to professional musicians registered on the relief rolls during the great depression. The project employed these musicians as instrumentalists, singers, concert performers, and teachers of music. Dr. Nikolai Sokoloff, former conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, was appointed Director of the FMP. The program was initiated in September 1935 and continued until June 1939, at which time individual states were given the responsibility of continuing or ending current projects. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B12F08_018_001
Subjects: Bands (Music); Musicians--Ohio; Federal Music Project (U.S.); United States. Works Progress Administration
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Mine fire, New Straitsville, Ohio. Hazelton Hill between Shawnee and New Straitsville. Perry County." This photograph shows smoke wafting from the New Straitsville Mine Fire in Perry County. The mine fires are said to have started November 13, 1884, when striking miners pushed burning cars into a mine, during a strike over wages between the New Straitsville Mining Company's management and mine workers. A small group of union members decided to sabotage the mines. Cars filled with oil-soaked timber were set on fire and were pushed into a mine owned by the New Straitsville Mining Company. The fire quickly spread to the coal seam underground. Reportedly, the coal seam was fourteen feet across and extended an undetermined distance into the Earth. It took several days for the fire to be discovered. By that point, it was too late to stop the fire's spread. As a result of the fire, the mine closed. The New Straitsville mine fire has raged ever since 1884. In 1936, the WPA began work to stop the spread of the fire by building barriers across burning veins of coal. In 1938, nearly 350 men were employed on the project. Under the direction of James R. Cavanaugh, a veteran mine fire fighter, tunnels were driven through veins in the path of the fire, and were filled with a clay-water mixture or similar non-burning material. The mine fires effected coal deposits in Hocking and Perry Counties in southeastern Ohio. It was estimated that by 1938 the coal destroyed, more than two hundred square miles, was worth fifty million dollars. In 2003, smoke began to emerge from the soil of the Wayne National Forest, 119 years after the fire began. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B07F12_028_1
Subjects: New Straitsville (Ohio)--Photographs; Coal mines and mining; United States. Works Progress Administration (U.S.)
Places: New Straitsville (Ohio); Perry County (Ohio)
 

Description: Reverse reads: "Paul Briesach WPA artist, painting Mural - Naval armory" This is a photo of a mural painted by a WPA artist named Paul Briesach. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B11F03_33_001
Subjects: Works Progress Administration of Ohio (U.S.); Mural painting and decoration--United States.
Places: Ohio
 

Description: Attached caption reads: "FEDERAL MUSIC PROJECT Photo taken at McKinley School, Eastern Avenue. Dance orchestra performing at a dance. Eight performers. Photo by W.P.A. Photographer, Federal Project No. 1. (Writers') District #16 Cincinnati, Ohio. 5-4-36" McKinley School is near Columbia Parkway, west of Alms Park. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B11F06_034_001
Subjects: Bands (Music); Musicians--Ohio; Federal Music Project (U.S.); United States. Works Progress Administration; Architecture--Ohio--Pictorial works; Pitman, Benn, 1822-1910; Architecture, Domestic--Ohio--Pictorial works.; National Register of Historic Places; Ohio--History--Pictorial works; Federal Writ
Places: Cincinnati (Ohio); Hamilton County (Ohio)