Indiana, The American Guide Series

THE MIDWEST. 
Guidebook. 

The American Guide Series is one of the great cultural accomplishments in American history. Originating out of the larger and equally impressive Federal Project One, known in the day as simply: “Federal One,” this program was specifically designed to provide jobs for out of work creative artists during the Great Depression (and was itself a tiny sliver of the sweeping Works Progress Administration). It would provide opportunities for thousands of writers, researchers, painters, musicians, and actors to support themselves in their crafts across the mid-late 1930s and on into the 1940s. Costing about 1% of the WPA’s total budget allocation, the mountains of material and scope of entertainment that Federal One churned out makes it one of the most cost-effective government programs ever. Mobile theatrical productions, jazz to orchestral concerts, and the celebrated post office mural project would come primarily to small towns and localities the country over, providing a proud cultural boost to a nation struggling through lean times. Designed to bring art “to the masses,” Federal One was New Deal to its core. It was also responsible for funding and staffing the individual state units that would produce the ambitious American Guide Series. The Writer’s Project segment of Fed One would eventually produce thick heavily-researched history-rich tour guides for all 48 states, most territories, city guides for metropolises, mid, and small-sized cities alike, and a number of national parks to boot. Its sheer scope is still amazing to consider given that it was all accomplished inside a decade and long before digital word processing, photography, and design layout made such productivity routine. The AGS guides, hard bound volumes often topping 400 pages each, include detailed pre-interstate era driving tours + maps, all meticulously traced by an army of staff. They are impressive to say the least, if hard to imagine riding side-saddle with tourists, given the slim guidebooks / brochures most of us know as touring aids of the recent past. Many of the AGS volumes would go down as classics in the travel / touring field. They made a determined effort to widen the aperture on the American past and present by including African American and other American minority histories, women’s and labor histories. Again, the AGS was New Deal through and through, its focus not just on the well known historical figures of America’s regions, but a more comprehensive “people’s history” telling of the story of those that had contributed to the working striving spirit of America, if anonymously. AGS volumes continue to be highly sought collectors items to this day … As with all AGS guides, Indiana, “A Guide to the Hoosier State” begins with a background covering nature and geology, the native tribes and early white settlers, on up to its then modern industry, agriculture, educational system, architecture, and the arts. With hundreds of black-and-white photos (including many “aerial” shots), the volume guides auto-tourists from the Calumet in the north to Corydon, Fort Wayne to Vincennes. There is only slight foxing on the volume’s outer page edges, some discoloration on the end papers, some sun wear on the spine, and the slightest edge wear on cover edges. Overall, the condition of this 80+ year old volume is excellent, the map in fantastic (maybe never used) condition. 

Condition: Used Very Good. 
Travel / Touring. 
Indiana Writer's Project, Works Progress Administration. 
Oxford University Books, 1941. 
Hardcover (First Edition), 548 pgs, 5.5 x 8" / 2 lb