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The Center for New Deal Studies holds a wealth of information on the New Deal. These include one of the largest book collections in the Midwest, a growing archival collection, the Ephemera Collections, New Deal Films and Videos, and photographs.

Ephemera

The center holds some 1,500 artifacts in the Remembering FDR memorabilia collection. These include plaques, busts, political buttons, campaign textiles, toys, dolls, glass and tinware, china, paintings, and other artifacts.

While the bulk of this large collection is in storage, a representative sample of objects is on display at the Center, in Room 1040 of the Auditorium Building. In addition, displays have been exhibited at both the downtown and Robin campuses of Roosevelt University, and a slide show has been assembled for use in classes and lectures. Objects from the collection were featured in the 1997 exhibit on political conventions at the Chicago Historical Society.

The largest part of the ephemera comes from the Joseph M. Jacobs Collection of FDR Memorabilia. On loan from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, this collection consists of nearly 1,500 pieces of ephemera related to FDR. The collection also includes a few objects owned personally by FDR, including a cigarette holder, shot glass, and a deck of playing cards.

Joseph M. Jacobs (1907-1995) was a Chicago labor lawyer. A graduate of Syracuse University and John Marshall Law School, he represented more than a dozen international unions and hundreds of locals, including the Chicago Teachers Union. A well known figure in the world of political memorabilia collection, he was also a founder and leader of the Illinois Labor History Society. He also amassed a 30,000 piece collection of FDR books and documents, which he donated to the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Supplementing this collection is the Herbert Lowery Collection of FDR Artifacts, donated to the Center by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute of Hyde Park, New York. For more description of the items in these collections, see the book chapter, “The Popular Iconography of FDR” in Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Shaping of American Political Culture (2001) by Lynn Weiner, Professor Emeriti of History and Ronald Tallman, Emeritus Professor of History.

Elizabeth Balanoff Labor Oral History Collection

In 1970, Elizabeth Balanoff received a bicentennial grant of $16,825 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct and transcribe a series of interviews with individuals in the Chicago area who were involved in the labor movement. In 2001, Roosevelt University librarians Michael Gabriel and David Green received a $10,000 grant from the Illinois State Library to digitize these interview transcripts. In 2008, Elizabeth Balanoff was inducted into the Illinois Labor History Society's Union Hall of Honor because of her work on this project. In 2010, the Murray-Green Library received the John Sessions Memorial Award for this project, an award which is presented annually by the Reference and User services Association (RUSA) to a library which has made a significant contribution to the labor movement. It is named for John Sessions, former American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and co-chair of the AFL-CIO/ALA Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups.

David MacLaren Memorial Book Collection

This book collection honors the life and work of David MacLaren, an adjunct professor at Roosevelt during 2001 and 2002. Passionate about his teaching and his research, Dave was devoted to social justice and to the demolition of class barriers. He taught the U.S. history survey at Roosevelt, as well as courses on recent American and urban history, and his unfinished doctoral thesis investigated (and excoriated) the maintenance of segregated blood supplies by the American Red Cross under the supervision of the U.S. Department of War during World War II and the Korean conflict.

Dave packed a full lifetime of causes and loves into his thirty years. He was a published poet and an aspiring playwright. He played and coached soccer with an exhilarating intensity, and he agonized over the fortunes of the White Sox, the Bears, the Fire, and his hometown Pacers. Dave lived and died with his heart on his sleeve and that spirit is present still on the shelves of this collection.

David MacLaren Memorial Book Collection: Recent Acquisitions

Author	Title and Subtitles	City of Publication	Publisher	Date of Publication
Barter Judith A.	After the Fall Painting in the 1930s	Chicago, Illinois	Yale University Press	2016
Boehm Lisa Krissoff; Steven H. Corey.	America’s Urban History.	London, United Kingdom	Routledge	2014
Brock Emily Katherine; Money Trees	The Douglas Fir and American Forestry, 1900-1944	Corvallis, Oregon	Oregon State University Press	2015
Breiseth, Christopher, et. al.	Women and the Spirit of the New Deal	Berkeley, California	The Living New Deal	2018
Cahan Richard; Williams Michael	UN - American	Chicago, Illinois	City Files Press	2016
Carter Ennis	Posters for the People: Art of the WPA	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Quirck Books	2008
Chase Karen	FDR on his Houseboat: The Larooco Log, 1924 - 1926	Albany, New York,	State University of New York Press	2016
Cohen, Stan.	The Tree Army: A Pictorial History of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1942.	Missoula, Montana	Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.	1980
Cross Robert F	Sailor in the White House: The Seafaring Life of FDR	Annapolis, Maryland	US Naval Institute Press	2016
Curl, John	For all the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements and Communalism in America, 2ed	Oakland, California	PM Press	2009
Downey, Kirstin	The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life and Legacy of Frances Perkins—Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and the Minimum Wage	New York, New York	Anchor Books	2009
Duxbury, Kathleen	CCC Art: Artists of the Civilian Conservation Corps--Marshall Davis.		Kathleen Duxbury	2014
Federal Writers’ Project	Alabama Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Alabama from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Arkansas Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Arkansas from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Florida Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Florida from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Georgia Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Georgia from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Kentucky Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Kentucky from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Maryland Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Maryland from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Mississippi Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Mississippi from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Missouri Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Missouri from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Ohio Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Ohio from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Oklahoma Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Oklahoma from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	South Carolina Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in South Carolina from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Tennessee Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Tennessee from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Federal Writers’ Project	Virginia Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in Virginia from Interviews with Former Slaves	Bedford, Massachusetts	FWP, Applewood Books and The Library of Congress	1936-1938
Findlay James	Works Progress Administration Children’s Books	Fort Lauderale, Florida	Bienes Museum of the Modern Book	2008
Findlay James; Lillian Perricone	WPA Museum Extension Project 1935-1943: Government Created Visual Aids for Children	Fort Lauderale, Florida	Bienes Museum of the Modern Book	2009
Finnegan Carra A	Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs	Washington, District of Columbia	Smithsonian Institution Press	2003
Follett Publishing Company	The 20th Century Handbook in how to use a Library	Chicago, Illinois		1931
Georgia Museum of Art	The American Scene: Prints and Drawing from the Schoen Collection	Athens, Georgia	Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia	2008
Golay Michael	America 1933: The Great Depression, Lorena Hickok, Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of the New Deal	New York, New York	Free Press	2013
Harmon F. Martin	The Warm Springs Story	Macon, Georgia	Mercer University Press	2014
Kirchgessner John C.; Arlene Wynbeek Keeling,	Nursing Rural America: Perspectives from the Early 20th Century	New York, New York	Springer Publishing Company	2015
Kohner, Hanna and Walter Kohner with Frederick Kohner	Hanna and Walter: A Love Story	New York, New York	iUniverse	1994, 2008
Lamar, Elden and J.B.S. Hardman, ed.	The Clothing Workers in Philadelphia: A History of Their Struggles for Union and Security	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	The Philadelphia Joint Board, Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America	1940.
Linden Diana L	Ben Shahn’s New Deal Murals: Jewish Identity in the American Scene	Detroit, Michigan	Wayne State University Press	2015
Maresca Joseph	WPA Buildings: Architecture and Art of the New Deal	Atglen, Pennsylvania	Schiffer Publishing, Ltd	2016
Minchew Kaye Lenning	A President in our Midst: Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Georgia	Athens, Georgia	The University of Georgia Press	2016
Nasaw David	The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy	New York	Penguin Press	2012
National Youth Administration of Illinois	NYA Community Service: Woodshop Production Series: Game Room Equipment	Chicago, IL		1939
Natural Rubber Bureau	Convert to Comfort…with Latex Foam	Washington, District of Columbia		circa 1945
Office of Indian Affairs	Health Education for Guidance of Leaders			1936
Pennsylvania Department of Education	The Conduct of Elementary Education			1939
Quinn, Susan	Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art Out of Desperate Times	New York, New York	Walker and Co	2008
Recreation Leadership Training Program	Arts and Crafts Handicraft: Flower Stenciling			circa 1938
Resettlement Administration (Farm Security Administration),	Weaving Manual			1936
Rubenstein DeMasi, Susan	Henry Alsberg: The Driving Force of the New Deal Federal Writers’ Project	Jefferson, North Carolina	MacFarland & Co.	2016.
Short C.W.; R. Stanley-Brown	Public Buildings: Architecture under the Public Works Administration 1933-39; Vol 1	New York	Da Capo Press	1986
Sklaroff Lauren R.	Black Culture and the New Deal: The Quest for Civil Rights in the Roosevelt Era	North Carolina	The University of North Carolina Press	2009
Smith, Harvey L.	Berkeley and the New Deal	Charleston, South Carolina	Arcadia Publications	2014
Stewart, Catherine A.	Long Past Slavery: Representing Race in the Federal Writers’ Project	Chapel Hill, North Carolina	University of North Carolina Press	2016.
	This is Your Life, vol. 1: Interview with Hanna Kohner		DVD
Voices of the Generations	Voices of the Generations, Hanna and Walter: A Love Story—Curriculum	Los Angeles, California	VOG	2010
Works Progress Administration	Adaptation of Foundation Costume Patterns for Rhythm and Modern Dance Costumes, Character Costumes, Party Costumes, Folk Costumes, Tap Costumes	New York		circa 1938
Works Progress Administration	Adult Education Recreation: Music: Handbook for Teachers, comp. Aug. 24, 1937-Sept. 3	Denver, Colorado		1937
Works Progress Administration	American Folk Dances: Handbook for Recreation Leaders	Colorado		circa 1940
Works Progress Administration	American Folk Dances: Square and Folk Dances	Denver, Colorado		1941
Works Progress Administration	Children’s Play Centers	Kansas		1940
Works Progress Administration	Christmas Suggestions	Butte, Montana		1938
Works Progress Administration	An Evening of Old Time Social Dancing: Description and Music for Twelve “Popular” Old Time Dances	California		1941
Works Progress Administration	Laws of Table Tennis: 1937-38 Season	New York		circa 1938
Works Progress Administration	Let’s Dance: Iowa WPA Recreation Bulletin Service #1	Des Moines, Iowa		1941
Works Progress Administration	A List of Free and Inexpensive Teaching Materials	Washington, District of Columbia		1940
Works Progress Administration	A Manual for Teaching Elementary English	Washington, District of Columbia		1941
Works Progress Administration	On the Way to Democracy, Books 1, 2, 3: Experimental Edition	Washington, District of Columbia		1942
Works Progress Administration	Pre-school Play	Washington, District of Columbia		1941
Works Progress Administration	Music as Recreation	New York		1939
Works Progress Administration	Puppet Teaching: All Cloth Puppets	New York		circa 1938
Works Progress Administration	Puppet Teaching: English Costume	New York		circa 1939
Works Progress Administration	Puppet Teaching News Bulletin: Vol. II, No. 6	New York		1938
Works Progress Administration	Recreation Activities for the Pre-school Child	New York		1938
Works Progress Administration	This is for the Very Young,	New York		circa 1939
Works Progress Administration	The Orchestra and Music for Old Time Social Dancing	California		1942
Works Progress Administration	Social Recreation Manual	California		circa 1940
Works Progress Administration	Social Recreation Bulletin	Wisconsin		1937
Wiegand Wayne A.	Part of Our Lives: A People's History of the American Public Library	New York	Oxford University Press	2015

Questions about this page?

Margaret Rung

Prof History
Director Center for New Deal Studies

Office: AUD 834

mrung@roosevelt.edu

312-341-3724