Annie Louise Cary performance program   Save
Ohio Guide Photographs
Description: Dated ca. 1935-1943, this is a program for an Annie Louise Cary performance in Urbana, Ohio. Born in Maine on October 22, 1842, Annie Louise Cary became one of the first U.S. contralto singers to achieve international fame. In Cary's U.S. operatic debut in 1871, she sang Frederick in "Martha" at the New York Academy of Music. At the time she retired in 1882, she was the most popular singer in America. 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_B15F01_075
Subjects: Opera — 20th Century; Arts and Entertainment; Musical performance; Women in the performing arts; Singers
Places: Urbana (Ohio); Champaign County (Ohio)