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This exhibit was prepared by the late Mary Kellogg Rice for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Golda Meir Library in October 1997.
The exhibit is dedicated to the five thousand women and men who worked for the
Milwaukee Handicraft Project from 1935 to 1943. These county residents were forced onto
public relief to aid their families during the Great Depression. While they often
used inexpensive materials and initially lacked employment skills, the workers made
products of outstanding quality, beauty and educational value. Elsa Ulbricht, the faculty
member from Milwaukee State Teachers College (the predecessor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee),
envisioned the WPA as an opportunity for women to make craft items that would be useful to
governmental institutions; at the same time the workers could be exposed to the uplifting experience
of good design. Mary Kellogg (Rice), the young art director, set the standard for the work: "It was
decided that no matter how simple the article to be made or how inexpensive the materials to be used in
the construction, the article would be well-designed or it would not be made."
The work of the WPA Handicraft Project enriched the lives of children and adults in schools, nurseries, state and county institutions, hospitals and colleges in Milwaukee County and throughout the nation.
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Learn more about the
Works Progress Administration (WPA) activities in Milwaukee.
Employment & Training Home Page
Updated 2013
Employment and Training Institute
School of Continuing Education
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Direct comments to Lois Quinn (lquinn@uwm.edu)