B. F. Goodrich Company minstrel show photograph

Dated ca. 1935-1943, this photograph shows employees of the Goodrich Rubber Company putting on a minstrel show. Founded by Benjamin Franklin Goodrich in 1871, the company helped make Akron the "Rubber Capital of the World" during the late 1800s. The original plant in Akron made numerous items but focused on fire hoses that would not burst under pressure. With the development of the automobile and the pneumatic tire, demands for tires skyrocketed and the business flourished. 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