: Dated ca. 1930-1943, this photograph shows three boys approaching a covered bridge in Fairfield County, Ohio. The photograph's caption reads "Off for a day's adventure, Fairfield County." Ohio has a large number of covered bridges, falling second only to Pennsylvania in quantity. Within the state of Ohio, Fairfield and Ashtabula Counties lead the state in containing the most original covered bridges. Most of the covered bridges in Fairfield County were built between 1871 and 1906, with original construction beginning in 1849.
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.
: SA1039AV_B01F17_002 Subjects
: Covered bridges--Ohio; Transportation--Ohio; Boys; Children; Summer Places
: Fairfield County (Ohio)