Andrews' Raiders at the 1888 G.A.R. Encampment

On September 10-14, 1888, the 22nd Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) was held in Columbus, Ohio. Composed of Civil War veterans, the G.A.R. was founded in 1866 in Illinois. Pictured is the locomotive, the "General," which was stolen on April 12, 1862 by Andrews' Raiders. There were 22 raiders, all from Ohio, who participated in this raid which was aimed at isolating Atlanta, Georgia, by disrupting the Western & Atlantic Railroad. James T. Andrews devised this raid, and he and all other participants were caught. Eight were hanged by the Confederates and nineteen received a Medal of Honor. 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