The physical collection consists of 18 recordings. Only one of those recordings is currently available in digital format: "The Hospital of Today, Blue Cross Programs No. 3 and No. 4".
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was a federal government agency, which was started in 1935 as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. In 1939, it was renamed the Work Projects Administration, and also made part of the Federal Works Agency. The WPA was intended to provide jobs for the unemployed in construction and improvement of public spaces and buildings, such as roads, schools, airports and post offices. In addition to construction projects, the WPA also created the Federal Arts Project, Federal Theatre Project, Federal Music Project, and Federal Writers Project. Radio played an important role in the WPA, and several WPA projects resulted in recordings, which were then aired on various radio stations. This collection contains a number of such recordings, many of which were broadcast in Illinois, from the Federal Music Project, as well as the Federal Writers Project.
The Federal Music Project was intended to create interest in art and music, and thus to provide more jobs and opportunities for artists and musicians. The head of the Federal Music Project was Nikolai Sokoloff, who emphasized the importance of classical music as opposed to vernacular or popular music. As a result, most of the Federal Music Project performances were symphony or opera performances written by American composers.
Because orchestras traveled and gave many live performances in various communities, many of the artists and composers involved with the program received a great deal of recognition. The program also rejuvenated and created interest in symphony orchestras in many of the areas it had traveled. Chicago had its own WPA orchestra, the Illinois Symphony, which was started in 1935 and grew to become very popular and, unlike other WPA orchestras, turned a profit. Owing to its relative financial success, the Illinois Symphony was able to pay the performance royalties commanded by such luminary composers as Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Sibelius.
Understandably, the WPA believed it had much to offer over the radio, and in 1936 the Federal Music Project initiated a program of recording its best symphonies and sending these recordings to any radio station that requested them. In addition to the musical recordings produced by the symphony orchestras of the FMP, another WPA agency, the Federal Writers Project, would also create and distribute recordings to be broadcast on radio stations throughout the country.
The Illinois Writers Project, on the other hand, was a part of the Federal Writers Project under the WPA. The program was officially sponsored by the Division of Departmental Records of the State of Illinois. The project and was intended to enable writers, teachers, and scholars to write and publish various publications pertaining to Illinois, such as booklets, guidebooks, plays, and historical guides. The program also created numerous plays and other programs specifically for radio broadcast. These programs included the "Art Institute Presents" series, as well as the "Legends of Illinois" series. By 1939 the WPA federal funding for the program Federal Writers Project was cut, and in June 1943, the agency WPA officially ceased to exist.