ABSTRACT

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal relief programs in the 1930s to early 1940s decisively changed the practice of archaeology in the United States. The story of how this unprecedented funding and access to labor-most famously through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) — transformed archaeology has been told a number of times (Baklanoff and Howington, 1989; Dye, 1991; Haag, 1985, 1986; Lyon, 1996; Milner and Smith, 1986; Schwartz, 1967; Seltzer and Strong, 1936; Seltzer, 1942, 1943). Excavation methods and field training were improved; institutional support was augmented; knowledge of prehistoric cultures was increased; and crippling rural unemployment was reduced. The last, of course, was the principal reason for federal involvement in this great endeavor.