Description: Dated to the 1930s or 1940s, this aerial photograph shows Armco East Side Works in Middletown, Ohio. Armco was born a Cincinnati steel roofing company, and moved to Middletown in 1901 to produce rolled steel sheets. In 1904, the plant's workers established a shop committee, an early predecessor to a trade union. A 1921 innovation in coiling sheet steel led to a boom in production; the company became Armco Inc. in 1978, and merged with AK Steel in 1999. A note on the photograph's reverse reads "A new wide-cold-reduction Mill at East Works-Armco, nearing completion, representing investment of approx. four million dollars, Note the private tracks for Railway transportation to both mills. A complete History of Armco ready for mailing May 1, 1936. Armco East Side Works. Middletown, Ohio." This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B07F12_013_1
Subjects: American Rolling Mill Company; Steel-works--Ohio--Pictorial works;Industries--Ohio--Butler County; Factories--History; United States. Work Projects Administration (Ohio)
Places: Middletown(Ohio); Butler county(Ohio); Warren county(Ohio)