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Research ArticleArticles

In the Footsteps of the Federal Writers’ Project

Revisiting the Workshop of the World

Daniel Campo
Landscape Journal, January 2010, 29 (2) 179-198; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.29.2.179
Daniel Campo
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Abstract

The catalogue of the American Guide Series (AGS) of the Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) remains a durable and unique resource for landscape professionals and scholars. Perhaps the most extensive chronicling of the American cultural landscape, these New Deal–era travel guides have the potential to guide and inform contemporary preservation and recovery initiatives. This study revisits the landscape documented in the FWP’s Philadelphia: A Guide to Our Nation’s Birthplace (1937), re-creating “City Tour 9: Through Industrial Philadelphia.” Though only vestiges of the industrial metropolis documented by the FWP in the 1930s remain today, retracing the tour helps us understand the legacy of industrial decline from an on-the-ground perspective. It also suggests a methodology for preservation field study using the framework and content of historic accounts such as the AGS to emphasize materiality, seriality, and a visceral understanding of urban places that can be gained only by spending time in the field. Applying this methodology to the contemporary area covered by City Tour 9, the study concludes with ideas to guide industrial landscape preservation in Philadelphia and other deindustrialized places.

  • Federal Writers’ Project
  • Philadelphia
  • deindustrialization
  • historic preservation
  • cultural landscapes
  • © 2010 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

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Landscape Journal: 29 (2)
Landscape Journal
Vol. 29, Issue 2
1 Jan 2010
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In the Footsteps of the Federal Writers’ Project
Daniel Campo
Landscape Journal Jan 2010, 29 (2) 179-198; DOI: 10.3368/lj.29.2.179

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In the Footsteps of the Federal Writers’ Project
Daniel Campo
Landscape Journal Jan 2010, 29 (2) 179-198; DOI: 10.3368/lj.29.2.179
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Keywords

  • Federal Writers’ Project
  • Philadelphia
  • deindustrialization
  • historic preservation
  • Cultural landscapes
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