Documenting WPA Murals in California

Abstract

Librarians at San Diego State University developed a database and research guide as part of their inventory of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals in California. The project was inspired by the discovery of several Depression-era murals on campus, and it was designed to help place those murals into their historical context. The hours spent researching and tracking down murals resulted in a searchable online inventory documenting over 350 murals. This article describes the background to the project, the methodology used to inventory and photograph the murals, and the resulting image database.