Description: This photograph shows the Third Street Bridge in Dayton, Ohio, on the ice-covered Miami and Erie Canal, one of Ohio's most important canals in the mid-nineteenth century. Many storefronts and advertisements are seen to either side of the bridge, including Barrar Floor Covering Co., May & Co., Brown's Furniture Outlet Exchange, and a stove shop, and automobiles line the streets. The Miami and Erie Canal connected the Ohio River in Cincinnati, Ohio and Lake Erie in Toledo, Ohio and was completed in 1845. Most canals remained in operation in Ohio until the late 1800s. 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_B01F17_019
Subjects: Canals Ohio; Miami and Erie Canal (Ohio); Transportation--Ohio; Storefronts; Winter
Places: Dayton (Ohio); Montgomery County (Ohio)