Brand Whitlock house photograph

This photograph was taken April 28, 1937, to document the Brand Whitlock House in Champaign County, Ohio, but the photographer shot the wrong house. The photograph's caption reads "Urbana, O. April 28, 1937. Supposed to be the Brand Whitlock House. Champaign County. Wrong House." During World War I, Brand Whitlock served as ambassador to Belgium, where he became close friends with the royal family and earned the nickname "Le Ministre Protecteur." Whitlock was born in Urbana, Ohio, and was a journalist at the Chicago Herald before becoming interested in politics. He worked for several years under Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones, and succeeded Jones as mayor of Toledo in 1905, staying in office until 1913. Whitlock was also an author, writing 18 books during his lifetime, including a 1914 autobiography, 'Forty Years of It.' 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