Resources from the Federal Government
The federal government has played an important role in the creation of art and employment of artists through
- large scale works projects
- agency offices of artists
- grant funded exhibitions and commissions for artists
The government helps preserve art and advocate for arts in society through Independent government agencies such as
- National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
- Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)
- National Archives
- Library of Congress
Federal (as well as state and local) government sources can provide research tools to learn about artists and their art.
Online Collections
Lewis Hines photograph from Library of Congress.
- Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar - About this Collection - Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress)In 1943, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), America's most well-known photographer, documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese-Americans interned there during World War II.
- Bound for Glory: America in Color - Exhibitions - (Library of Congress)The first major exhibition of the little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Comprised of seventy digital prints made from color transparencies taken between 1939 and 1943, this exhibition reveals a surprisingly vibrant world that has typically been viewed only through black-and-white images.
- Bureau of Indian Affairs PhotographsMore than 18,000 digitized historical photographs from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) records. Photographs were taken over many decades and provide important documentation of Native American communities and culture, covering a wide variety of topics and activities. Among the records are portraits of individuals and families, and images of work, military service, crafts, medical care, and athletics, among others.
- CivilWar@Smithsonian CollectionsCivil War artifacts in nearly a dozen of its museums and archives. They range in interest from personal effects—Abraham Lincoln’s black beaver top hat—to examples of uniforms and weapons, some of which were manufactured in the tens of thousands.
- Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives - About this Collection - Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress)The photographs in the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy E. Stryker, who guided the effort in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement Administration (1935-1937), the Farm Security Administration (1937-1942), and the Office of War Information (1942-1944).
Library of Congress
Bound for Glory: America in Color by Call Number: LC 25.2:B 66x, Documents Floor 4ISBN: 0810943484Publication Date: 2004-05-04Presents 180 full-color photographs from the Library of Congress's Farm Security Administration collection, taken by FSA photographers from 1939 to 1943, creating a portrait of America as it began to emerge from the Great Depression and prepared to fight World War II.
Smithsonian
1934: A New Deal for Artists by Call Number: SI 6.2:N 42, Documents Floor 4ISBN: 9781904832676Publication Date: 2009-07-10Examines more than 50 paintings in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum created under the auspices of the Public Works of Art Project.
African American Art by Call Number: SI 6.2:AF 8x, Documents Floor 4ISBN: 9780847838905Publication Date: 2012-05-22An illustrated survey of African American art of the twentieth century, including many never-before-seen works by the most important artists of the period. African American Art presents a powerful selection of paintings, sculpture, prints, and photographs by forty-three black artists who explored the African American experience of the twentieth century. Embracing many universal themes and also evoking specific aspects of the African American experience such as the African diaspora, jazz, and the power of religion, the artists worked in styles as varied as documentary realism, abstraction, and postmodern assemblage of found objects. Drawn entirely from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's rich collection of African American art, the works include paintings by Benny Andrews, Jacob Lawrence, Thornton Dial Sr., Romare Bearden, Alma Thomas, and Lois Mailou Jones, and photographs by Roy DeCarava, Gordon Parks, Roland Freeman, Marilyn Nance, and James Van Der Zee. More than half of the artworks in the exhibition are being shown for the first time. In Richard Powell's text, his usual keen insights into meaning and metaphor enrich the reader's understanding of the artworks in their historical setting and contemporary culture."
The Civil War and American Art by Call Number: SI 6.2:C 49x, Documents Floor 4ISBN: 9780300187335Publication Date: 2012-12-03This book looks at the range of artwork created before, during, and following the war, in the years between 1859 and 1876. Author Eleanor Jones Harvey examines the implications of the war on landscape and genre painting, history painting, and photography, as represented in some of the greatest masterpieces of 19th-century American art. The book features extensive quotations from men and women alive during the war years, alongside text by literary figures including Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman, among many others.
The Art of Video Games by Call Number: SI 6.2:V 53x, Documents, Floor 4ISBN: 9781599621104Publication Date: 2012-03-05The forty-year history of the video game industry, the medium has undergone staggering development, fueled not only by advances in technology but also by an insatiable quest for richer play and more meaningful experiences. From the very beginning, with the introduction of the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, countless individuals became enthralled by a new world opened before them, one in which they could control and create, as well as interact and play. Even in their rudimentary form, video games held forth a potential and promise that inspired a generation of developers, programmers, and gamers to pursue visions of ever more sophisticated interactive worlds. As a testament to the game industry's stunning evolution, and to its cultural impact worldwide, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and curator Chris Melissinos conceived the 2012 exhibition The Art of Video Games. Along with a team of game developers, designers, and journalists, Melissinos selected an initial group of 240 games in four different genres to represent the best of the game world. Selection criteria included visual effects, creative use of technologies, and how world events and popular culture influenced the games. The Art of Video Games offers a revealing look into the history of the game industry, from the early days of Pac-Man and Space Invaders to the vastly more complicated contemporary epics such as BioShock and Uncharted. Melissinos examines each of the eighty winning entries, with stories and comments on their development, innovation, and relevance to the game world's overall growth. Visual images, composed by Patrick O'Rourke, are all drawn directly from the games themselves, and speak to the evolution of games as an artistic medium, both technologically and creatively.
World War Posters
In 1917 when the United States joined the Allies in the World War, the federal government and national organizations mobilized its citizens to aid the war effort. They communicated in the form of posters with well known Illustrators and artists volunteering their time to create iconic images still recognized.
Immediately following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the federal government lost no time in soliciting the public's support for the war overseas. As it had in the First World War, the United States government designed, printed and distributed propaganda posters encouraging every American's unified support for the war.
Milner Library's Government Documents Collection includes over 600 posters created during these wars.
Answering the Call is an online collection of digital images of World War I posters held in Milner Library's Government Documents World War Poster Collection.
Propaganda on All Fronts: United States and International World War II-Era Posters is an online collection of selected digital images of World War II-era posters held in Milner Library's Government Documents World War Poster Collection.
Subsidized federal art programs
The New Deal program, Works Progress Administration (WPA), with the Federal Arts Project, was created in the 1930s to employ jobless artists and writers during a national economic crisis. Out of the 15 million unemployed victims of the Great Depression, nearly ten thousand were artists. (National Endowment of the Arts, 1965–2008)
Posters for the People by Call Number: TMC 741.674 CAR, Floor 6ISBN: 1594742928Publication Date: 2008-09-01This lavishly illustrated volume amasses nearly 500 of the best and most striking posters designed by artists working in the 1930s and early 1940s for the government-sponsored Works Progress Administration, or WPA. Posters for the People presents these works for what they truly are: highly accomplished and powerful examples of American art. All are iconic and eye-catching, some are humorous and educational, and many combine modern art trends with commercial techniques of advertising. More than 100 posters have never been published or catalogued in federal records; they are included here to ensure their place in the history of American art and graphic design. nbsp; The story of these posters is a fascinating journey, capturing the complex objectives of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal reform program. Through their distinct imagery and clear and simple messages, the WPA posters provide a snapshot of an important era when the U.S. government employed hundreds of artists to create millions of posters promoting positive social ideals and programs and a uniquely American way of life. The resulting artworks now form a significant historical record. More than a mere conveyor of government information, they stand as timeless images of beauty and artistic accomplishment.
From 1935 to 1944, the Resettlement Administration (1935–1937), Farm Security Administration (1937-1942) and the Office of War Information (1942-1944) photographers created a portrait of America as it began to emerge from the Great Depression and prepared to fight World War II.
Bound for Glory by Call Number: LC 25.2:B 66x, Documents Floor 4ISBN: 0810943484Publication Date: 2004-05-04
Biographical Research
Many primary resources can be searched online. Illinois State Archives offers a number of databases to assist in research. Additional resources include the following:
- Census Manuscript records
Census records can provide the building blocks of your research for individuals. From 1850-1940, details provided for all individuals in each household include names of members in a household, ages, state or country of birth, parent's birthplaces, year of immigration, street address, marriage status and years of marriage, occupation, value of home and personal belongings.
- Decennial population
- Clues in Census Records, National Archives and Records Administration
- Milner Library's Census manuscript holdings
- Census manuscript page, 1880
- Bloomington Public Library subscribes to the database, Ancestry Plus. Ancestry Plus is a broad-based collection of databases for experienced genealogists and beginning family historians. It provides online searching through the decennial censuses.
- Vital records
- Probate records
- Regional Statewide Archives
- For example, some counties such as McLean have online indexes for probate records held in the archives.
- Regional Statewide Archives
- Land records
- Federal and State General Land Office
- Military records
- Federal Government Documents
- Official Records of the War of the Rebellion Floor 4--W 45.5:
- National and Regional Statewide Archives
- Federal Government Documents
- Immigration records
- Regional Statewide Archives
