Ashland College touch football game

Dated ca. 1930-1939, this photograph shows students at Ashland College playing a game of touch football. The United Brethren Church opened Ashland College, the predecessor of Ashland University, in 1879, in Ashland, Ohio. The school originally enrolled seventy-five students and had eight faculty members. The institution struggled during its first years, eventually filing for bankruptcy in 1888, and the court ordered the school's sale. In 1888, the United Brethren Church purchased Ashland College's buildings from the court and established Ashland University. The next year, Ashland University founded a theological seminary. The institution continued to struggle financially, closing its doors in both 1896 and 1897. In 1898, Ashland University reopened and returned to its original name, Ashland College. Within four years, the institution had eliminated its previous debts and established a sizable endowment, allowing the school to construct new buildings and expand its faculty. 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