Description: Dated August 15, 1938, this photograph shows the home of Annie Oakley in Greenville, Ohio, in Darke County, with a caption that reads "The Annie Oakley House, and Memorial Boulder, located on US#127 north of Greenville." Phoebe Anne Mozee (also Mosey, Moses), better known as Annie Oakley, was a famous sharpshooter and women's rights advocate in the late 19th and early 20th century. Born August 13, 1860, in Darke County Oakley showed skill with firearms from an early age, using profits earned from the sale of wild game she killed to pay off her parents' mortgage. In 1875, she won a shooting contest against marksman Frank E. Butler in Cincinnati, Ohio, who convinced her to travel and perform with him. Oakley and Butler later married. The two performed in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show where Oakley remained until 1901, traveling across the country and to Europe with the show. She emerged as the first female American superstar and advocated women's right to join the army and serve in active combat situations. 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_B05F07_018
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic--Ohio--Pictorial works.; Oakley, Annie, 1860-1926; Greenville (Ohio); Houses
Places: Greenville (Ohio); Darke County (Ohio)