The WPA Guide to Wisconsin: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s Wisconsin

The WPA Guide to Wisconsin is one of a series of state guides produced by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) through its Federal Writers Program. The WPA was a New Deal relief agency, whose principal purpose was to provide work and income for persons who were without jobs during the Depression. The law required that 90% of those employed by the Federal Writers Project had to be taken from relief rolls. To supervise these workers, most of whom lacked research and writing skills, the Writers Project hired professional writers and editors. The project produced a variety of publications, but the state guides were its most important product.The Wisconsin Guide was organized in much the same way as the guides for other states. It presents information in five separate sections: (1) General Information (3 pages) deals with transportation (railroads, highways, buses, ferries, and air lines), accommodations, and recreation (including fishing and hunting). Needless to say, this section is primarily of historical, rather than practical, interest. (2) General Background (179 pages) addresses such subjects as geology, native plants and animals, history, Native Americans, other residents, politics, labor, agriculture, the cooperative movement, recreation, education, religion, newspapers, radio, literature, art, music, theatre, and architecture. (3) Cities (115 pages) consists of essays about Wisconsin's major cities--Green Bay, Kenosha, La Crosse, Madison, Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Racine, Sheboygan, and Superior. (4) Tours (257 pages) suggests 35 possible tours around the state, and provides information on the scenery, history, society, and commerce of towns other than those covered in the third section (above). (5) The Back Matter (87 pages) includes a 15-page chronology (1634-1936), a 13-page bibliography, an enumeration of the total population of towns of 1,000 or more residents (from the 1940 Census), a group of maps (accompanied by an index of place names), and a 37-page index to the volume. The original edition included 107 photographs taken around the state, but these do not appear in the most recent (2006) edition.There were times when it seemed that the Wisconsin Guide would never be completed, or would never be published. The Writers Project's clerical staff was largely assembled by the end of 1935, and the field force, which at times included as many as 200 workers, was in place during the following year. Charles Brown, museum director for the Wisconsin Historical Society, who had an interest in local history and folklore, as well as experience with scholarly editing, was named the state supervisor for the Writers Project. But Brown was largely a figurehead, as work was primarily directed by his assistants--some of whom were not up to the task. Perhaps reflecting Brown's fascination with folklore (he married the head of the folklore unit while the Writers Project was under way), field workers accumulated thousands of stories, songs, games, superstitions and sayings from around the state. But research on other aspects of state life was neglected. After being criticized for hiring his son, Brown resigned near the end of 1937. Fortunately, Brown had managed to obtain some state funding for the project, and had hired John Lyons to edit the guide.Lyons, who taught English at the University of Wisconsin, was a scholar who insisted on accuracy and good writing. He also possessed tact and good management skills. His influence improved the staff's morale as well as its performance; and he deserves much of the credit for completing the guide and for making it such a solid publication. Apart from the administrative problems he inherited from his predecessors, Lyons had to deal with political opposition. The House Un-American Activities Committee investigated possible Communist influence on the WPA. (Congressional hearings were not very edifying--one Congressman asked if Christopher Marlowe [1564-1593], a contemporary of Shakespeare, was a Communist.) Congressional hostility resulted in reduced appropriations for the WPA. Similar hostility among local leaders in Wisconsin dissuaded some of them from cooperating with any WPA endeavor. Thus, much research for the guide was done in books and small town newspapers in the excellent collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society. The manuscript for the guide was completed in 1939. The essays to be printed in it were vetted by such authorities as Elizabeth Brandeis, Aldo Leopold, and Selig Perlman, and subjected to further review by WPA officials in Washington. The manuscript was approved and typeset (but not indexed) in 1939.But then the project ran afoul of politicians in Wisconsin. The 1938 elections made Republican Julius Heil governor, and gave the Republicans control of key legislative committees. Republicans were antagonized by what they thought was the guide's praise of Robert LaFollette for attacking corporations. Criticizing the guide for being inaccurate and politically biased, they revoked the appropriation of funds to publish the guide. The guide's future was uncertain; but the Wisconsin Library Association took an interest in it. And, after circulating selected essays to local librarians and receiving positive feedback, the Association decided to sponsor publication of the guide. A commercial press agreed to publish it; but politics again intervened, as the Governor's office refused to release the type (the manuscript having already been typeset) from which the guide could be printed. Not deterred, the printer typeset the manuscript again, and the guide was published in 1941. It is an indication of its popularity that it has been reprinted seven times, most recently by the Minnesota Historical Society in 2006.

There is no better preparation for a road trip than these WPA guides and I'm scouring the Wisconsin countryside as my next adventure. Staying away from interstate highways and stepping into small communities is a wonderful way to travel and seeing what still remains many years later is like going on a treasure hunt. This will be my first time to explore the state rather than passing through and these guides offer driving tours from the 1930s ... imagine the trip ahead! I am enjoying the book so much and am thrilled to find it being reprinted for people like me. I also bought the WPA Guide to Minnesota and will do that state next. Try it!

Using this book on drives around the state to see if the places mentioned still exist. Highly recommend!

As with many of the WPA travel guides, this one is a delight: local histories that are both serious and quirky, driving routes that predate interstates and expressways, a window into the past that reveals so much, for good and ill, about the present.

A fantastic book showing the roads of yesteryear for travelers through the state. The City and Tour sections can't be beat anywhere. A must for any traveler in WIS.