New Deal Legacy Project | Robert Dawson Photography

ROBERT DAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY

Libraries in Times of Conflict Global Library Project Global Library Project Album Public Library: An American Commons Public Library: An American Commons Album On Reading in the San Joaquin: Stopping A Bullet With a Book Photographing Shakespeare: The Folger Shakespeare Library

Water & Power: A Global Empire of Thirst Global Water Project Water in the West Project New Deal Legacy Project Pyramid Lake Project Farewell, Promised Land Project Great Central Valley Project The Conscience of the City: Public Art Project

THE NEW DEAL LEGACY PROJECT

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression created a vast infrastructure for the nation that is now mostly invisible or taken for granted. We are now living in relatively affluent times off the work of people living during hard times. The purpose of the New Deal Legacy project is to show the forgotten legacy and lasting impact of the New Deal throughout California. The focus is on the built environment as a physical manifestation of the great ideals of the New Deal. The project hopes to show a model of good government from the past that could serve us again in the future.

Only five years separated Roosevelts inauguration in 1933 and the last New Deal measures in 1938. The New Dealers perceived that they had done more in those five years than had been done in any comparable period in American history, but they also saw that there was much still to be done. Reflecting on the accomplishments of the New Deal in 1939 Eleanor Roosevelt said, I believe in the things that have been done. They helped but did not solve the fundamental problemsI never believed the Federal government could solve the whole problem. It bought us time to think. The New Deal is now given credit for giving Americans hope, action and self-respect. People during the Depression began to see that government counts, and in the right hands, it can be made to work.

Taken as a whole this project is a prism with which to view the federal governments investment in the people and state of California in the 1930s. This investment helped end the Depression, aided the war effort during World War II and laid the groundwork for the post-war economic boom. It also vastly expanded the idea of a shared public domain. The idea of the commons has been under attack recently and this project will help us remember the lessons of when government worked.

Fire curtain mural, Woodrow Wilson High School, Long Beach, Bicycles in Aquatic Park, San Francisco, San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge from San Francisco, Recovering a lost New Deal mural in school, Long Beach, Recreated alter at Purisimia Mission, near Lompoc, Old Terminal, Treasure Island, San Francisco Bay, Badmitton, Horace Mann Middle School, San Francisco, Fire station at Greenwich and Stockton, San Francisco, CCC camp now used by 4-H, Dobbins, Lights, harbor and New Deal statue, San Diego, New Deal Labor Camp, Weedpatch, School entrance, Long Beach, Roosevelt Pool, Susanville, CCC diorama in Mission, near Redlands, Mural, Washington High School, San Francisco, Abandoned County Courthouse, Visalia, Tower Bridge, Sacramento/West Sacramento, Old City Hall, Fullerton, Administration Building, San Diego, Rainbow, Crissy Field, Presidio, San Francisco, Abraham Lincoln High School, SF, Aerial, Coit Tower, SF, Alameda County Courthouse Oakland, Alameda County Courthouse Oakland, Boys and Delano High School, Calhoun Terrace wall, SF, CCC pool, Death Valley NP, City Hall, Burbank, Color guard, Cow Palace, SF, Court House, Nevada City, Fire station #3, Long Beach, Fire Station, 16th@Albion, SF, Fire Station, Bluxome St, SF, Firehouse Greenwich@Stockton SF, Fountain, Kern R P, Bakersfield, Front of entrance North Branch Berkeley, Front of Post Office Visalia, Grill, Francis Scott Key School, SF, Gymnasium High School Eureka, Hamilton Field Marin County, High heel, Courthouse, Salinas, Inside Union Train Station, LA, Lights, Mt. Davidson, SF, Mist Trail Yosemite National Park, Old fire station, West Sacramento, Parker dam at night CA-AZ, Playground,Glen Park School, SF, Pulgas Water Temple, San Mateo County, Reading mural Coit Tower SF, Rising snake, San Diego Zoo, School Admin Build (pole) Fresno, Shasta dam + Mt. Shasta, Statue+Ad Build, San Diego, Sunshine School, SF., Tennis courts, Noe Valley, SF, Tower Mt. Diablo State Park, Triptych Orick School Orick, Union Train Station, LA, Vertical,crowd, Mt. Theater, Marin, WD+Merced Manor Reservoir SF.