Airplane taking off at Clevelend Municipal Airport photograph

This photograph shows an airplane is taking off from Cleveland Municipal Airport, with a caption which reads "Modern Plane taking off, Cleveland Airport. Ohio Picture Book. Page: 39. Picture: 48 (lower). Credit: None." The Cleveland Airport was built in 1925 and is located 8 miles southwest of Public Square at Brookpark Road and Riverside Drive. The airport, originally known as Cleveland Municipal, was renamed Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport on July 26, 1951, to commemorate the 82nd birthday of William R. Hopkins who founded it. It was shortly after World War I, that Cleveland envisioned an airport. The airport did not become possible until the federal government was convinced that the city could provide an adequate facility for U.S. Air Mail planes to stop in Cleveland on their coast-to-coast flights. It was on July 1, 1925, that the U.S. Air Mail made the first flight at the airport. Its first terminal building was constructed in 1927 and featured the world's first airport control tower. In 1929, the National Air Races held in Cleveland for the first time as part of the ceremonies dedicating Cleveland's Municipal Airport. 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