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WPA: Works Progress Administration/Work Projects Administration: Newspapers

Researching the WPA, a New Deal agency responsible for operating a wide variety of work-relief programs during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Newspapers & Periodicals

Watson WPA Camp News, [1939-40]  
MNHS call number: Microfilm filed under Watson  [Chippewa County].

WPA and Relief NewsSept. 14, 1936 issue only
[Minneapolis, Minn.]
Workers Alliance of America, Hennepin County Committee, 1936-
MNHS call number: Microfilm #1081

Service Men's Center Bulletin. 
Minneapolis, War Service Section, WPA, 1942-. [ Feb 1942-Feb 1943. ] 
MNHS call number: D810.E8 M6

Weekly News, Minnesota Emergency Relief Administration, Adult Education Division, St Paul.
Published by WPA classes in journalism. 
MNHS call number: FOLIO LC5253.S14

Suggested Newspapers & Dates

Most Minnesota papers ran stories on the WPA during the years that it was in operation, 1935-1943.  The papers suggested here may have had more WPA articles than some others.

Newspapers:

  • Minneapolis Journal (through 1939)
  • St Paul Daily News (through 1938)
  • Chisholm Tribune Herald
  • Virginia Daily Enterprise
  • Fargo Forum (covers Red River Valley in ND and MN)

Dates:

  • April 8, 1935. Congress passed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act that authorized the WPA.
  • January, 1936.  Number of workers on the WPA Payroll reaches 2.8 million
  • December, 1942. FDR orders abolition of WPA, no longer needed

Newspapers

Newsboy distributing January 1937 Minneapolis Journal.

The Minnesota Historical Society holds the world's largest collection of Minnesota newspapers, with dates ranging from 1849 to the present day.

Past issues of most newspaper titles are available on microfilm in the MNHS library, but there is also digital access to select newspapers

Use the links to the left to search for newspapers available at MNHS and to search within digitized newspaper collections.   

Search for Newspapers

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