American Guide Series
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The American Guide Series was a group of books and pamphlets published in 1937-1941 under the auspices of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP), a Depression-era works program in the United States. The American Guide Series books were compiled by the FWP, but printed by individual states, and contained detailed histories of each of the then 48 states of the Union with descriptions of every major city and town. In total, the project employed over 6,000 writers. The format was uniform, comprising essays on the state's history and culture, descriptions of its major cities, automobile tours of important attractions, and a portfolio of photographs.
Many books in the project have been updated by private companies or republished without updating. Hawaii was not a U.S. state during the WPA period and thus was not covered by the project.
Contents
Titles
States
| State | Title | Google Books | HathiTrust | Internet Archive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Arizona | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | 1940 ed. via Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Arkansas | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| California | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Internet Archive | |||
| Colorado | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | 1941 ed. via Google Books | Internet Archive + 1970 ed. via Internet Archive |
||
| Connecticut | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Delaware | A Guide to the First State, 1938 | Google Books | |||
| Florida | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| Georgia | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | |||
| Idaho | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Internet Archive | |||
| Illinois | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| Indiana | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Iowa | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Kansas | A Guide to the Sunflower State, 1939. | Google Books | |||
| Kentucky | A Guide to the Bluegrass State, 1939. | Google Books | |||
| Louisiana | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Maine | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Maryland | A Guide to the Old Line State, 1940 | Google Books | |||
| Massachusetts | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Michigan | A Guide to the Wolverine State, 1941 | Google Books | |||
| Minnesota | A State Guide, 1938 | Google Books | |||
| Mississippi | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | 1938 ed. via Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| Missouri | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| Montana | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | HathiTrust | Internet Archive | ||
| Nebraska | A Guide to the Cornhusker State, 1939 | Google Books | |||
| Nevada | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | 1940 ed. via Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| New Hampshire | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| New Jersey | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | 1939 ed. via Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| New Mexico | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| New York | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | HathiTrust | |||
| North Carolina | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| North Dakota | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | |||
| Ohio | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | |||
| Oklahoma | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| Oregon | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | 1940 ed. via Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Pennsylvania | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | |||
| Rhode Island | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| South Carolina | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | HathiTrust | Internet Archive | ||
| South Dakota | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| Tennessee | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | ||
| Texas | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books | HathiTrust | Internet Archive | |
| Utah | Utah: A Guide to the State, 1941 | Google Books | |||
| Vermont | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Internet Archive | |||
| Virginia | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | 1940 ed. via Google Books | Internet Archive | ||
| Washington | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | HathiTrust | |||
| West Virginia | A Guide to the Mountain State, 1941 | Google Books | |||
| Wisconsin | A Guide to the Badger State, 1941 | Google Books | |||
| Wyoming | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. | Google Books |
Cities
- New Castle on the Delaware, 1936. Newcastle, Delaware
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Washington DC
- Philadelphia: A Guide to the Nation's Birthplace, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Erie: A Guide to the City and County, 1938. Erie, Pennsylvania
- Lincoln City Guide, 1937. Lincoln, Nebraska
- Augusta, 1938. Augusta, Georgia
- New Orleans City Guide, 2008. New Orleans, Louisiana
- Lexington and the Bluegrass Country, 1938. Lexington, Kentucky
- Beaumont: A Guide to the City and Its Environs, 1939. Beaumont, Texas
- A Guide to Estherville, Iowa, 1939. Estherville, Iowa
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (+ via HathiTrust). New York City
- Louisville: A Guide to Falls City, 1940. Louisville, Kentucky
- A Guide to McGregor, 1940. McGregor, Iowa
- Portland City Guide, 1940. Portland, Maine
- A Guide to Key West, 1941. Key West, Florida
- Henderson: A Guide to Audubon's Home Town in Kentucky, 1941. Henderson, Kentucky
- San Antonio: A History and Guide, San Antonio, Texas
- Houston, a history and guide, 1942. Houston, Texas
- Cincinnati: A Guide to the Queen City and Its Neighbors, 1943. Cincinnati, Ohio
- Atlanta: Capital of the South, 1949. Atlanta, Georgia
- San Diego: A California City, 1937. San Diego
- San Francisco: The Bay and Its Cities, 1940. San Francisco
- Los Angeles: A Guide to the City and Its Environs, 1941. Los Angeles
- Santa Barbara: A Guide to the Channel City and its Environs, 1941. Santa Barbara
- Tulsa: A Guide to the Oil Capital, 1938. Tulsa, Oklahoma
- St. Augustine: Seeing St. Augustine, 1937 St Augustine, Florida
- Planning Your Vacation in Florida; Miami and Dade County including Miami Beach and Coral Gables, 1941 Miami
Regions and territories
- Bergen County Panorama, 1941.
- The Berkshire Hills, 1939.
- Cape Cod Pilot: A Loquacious Guide, 1937.
- Guide to Cedar Rapids and Northwest Iowa, 1937.
- New York Panorama, 1938.
- The Ocean Highway: New Brunswick, New Jersey to Jacksonville, Florida, 1938.
- U.S. One: Maine to Florida, 1938.
- A Guide to Alaska: Last American Frontier, 1939.
- Death Valley: A Guide, 1939.
- Here's New England! A Guide to Vacationland, 1939
- The Oregon Trail, US 30: The Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean, 1939.
- Puerto Rico: A Guide to the Island of Boriquen, 1940.
- Monterey Peninsula, 1941.
- The Minnesota Arrowhead Country, 1941.
- Ghost Towns of Colorado, 1947.
References
- Gross, Andrew S. "The American Guide Series: Patriotism as Brand-Name Identification" Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. Vol 62 Number 1. p. 85-111.
- Powell, Lawrence N. "Lyle Saxon and the WPA Guide to New Orleans." Southern Spaces 29 July 2009.
- "The American Guide Series" United States Senate. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
Further reading
- Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- Andrew Kelly, "Kentucky by Design: The Decorative Arts and American Culture", University Press of Kentucky, 2015. ISBN 978-0-8131-5567-8
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to American Guide Series. |
- American Guide Series: Guidebooks for each state, including Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii, published by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration, 1940-42, (121 titles dispersed in the division's collection). From the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress
