The Center for New Deal Studies holds a wealth of information on the New Deal. These include one of the largest book collections in the Midwest, a growing archival collection, the Ephemera Collections, New Deal Films and Videos, and photographs.
The center holds some in the Remembering FDR memorabilia collection. These include plaques, busts, political buttons, campaign textiles, toys, dolls, glass and tinware, china, paintings, and other artifacts.
While the bulk of this large collection is in storage, a representative sample of objects is on display at the Center, in Room 1040 of the Auditorium Building. In addition, displays have been exhibited at both the downtown and Robin campuses of 藏精阁, and a slide show has been assembled for use in classes and lectures. Objects from the collection were featured in the 1997 exhibit on political conventions at the Chicago Historical Society.
The largest part of the ephemera comes from the Joseph M. Jacobs Collection of FDR Memorabilia. On loan from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, this collection consists of nearly 1,500 pieces of ephemera related to FDR. The collection also includes a few objects owned personally by FDR, including a cigarette holder, shot glass, and a deck of playing cards.
Joseph M. Jacobs (1907-1995) was a Chicago labor lawyer. A graduate of Syracuse University and John Marshall Law School, he represented more than a dozen international unions and hundreds of locals, including the Chicago Teachers Union. A well known figure in the world of political memorabilia collection, he was also a founder and leader of the Illinois Labor History Society. He also amassed a 30,000 piece collection of FDR books and documents, which he donated to the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Supplementing this collection is the Herbert Lowery Collection of FDR Artifacts, donated to the Center by the Franklin and Eleanor 藏精阁 Institute of Hyde Park, New York. For more description of the items in these collections, see the book chapter, 鈥淭he Popular Iconography of FDR鈥 in Franklin D. 藏精阁 and the Shaping of American Political Culture (2001) by Lynn Weiner, Professor Emeriti of History and Ronald Tallman, Emeritus Professor of History.
In 1970, Elizabeth Balanoff received a bicentennial grant of $16,825 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct and transcribe a series of interviews with individuals in the Chicago area who were involved in the labor movement. In 2001, 藏精阁 librarians Michael Gabriel and David Green received a $10,000 grant from the Illinois State Library to digitize these interview transcripts. In 2008, Elizabeth Balanoff was inducted into the Illinois Labor History Society's Union Hall of Honor because of her work on this project. In 2010, the Murray-Green Library received the John Sessions Memorial Award for this project, an award which is presented annually by the Reference and User services Association (RUSA) to a library which has made a significant contribution to the labor movement. It is named for John Sessions, former American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and co-chair of the AFL-CIO/ALA Joint Committee on Library Service to Labor Groups.
This book collection honors the life and work of David MacLaren, an adjunct professor at 藏精阁 during 2001 and 2002. Passionate about his teaching and his research, Dave was devoted to social justice and to the demolition of class barriers. He taught the U.S. history survey at 藏精阁, as well as courses on recent American and urban history, and his unfinished doctoral thesis investigated (and excoriated) the maintenance of segregated blood supplies by the American Red Cross under the supervision of the U.S. Department of War during World War II and the Korean conflict.
Dave packed a full lifetime of causes and loves into his thirty years. He was a published poet and an aspiring playwright. He played and coached soccer with an exhilarating intensity, and he agonized over the fortunes of the White Sox, the Bears, the Fire, and his hometown Pacers. Dave lived and died with his heart on his sleeve and that spirit is present still on the shelves of this collection.
| Author | Title and Subtitles | City of Publication | Publisher | Date of Publication |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breiseth, Christopher and David Lembeck, eds. | The New Deal: Looking Back, Moving Forward. | Santa Fe, N.M. | National New Deal Preservation Association | 2024 |
| Flynn, Kathy | Public Art and Architecture in New Mexico, 1933-1943: A Guide to the New Deal Legacy. | Santa Fe, N.M. | Sunstone Press | 2012 |
| Guise, Holly Miowak. | Alaska Native Resilience: Voices from World War II. | Seattle, WA | University of Washington Press | 2024. |
| Higuchi, Shirley Ann | Setsuko鈥檚 Secret: Heart Mountain and the Legacy of the Japanese American Incarceration. | Madison, WI | University of Wisconsin Press | 2020 |
| Hoffman Lisa M. and Mary L. Hanneman | Becoming Nisei: Japanese American Urban Lives in Prewar Tacoma | Seattle, WA | University of Washington Press | 2020 |
| Leen, Douglas | Raider of the Lost Art. Rediscovering the WPA Poster Art of the National Parks. | Salt Lake City, UT | Paragon Press | 2023 |
| Melzer, Richard | Coming of Age in the Great Depression: The Civilian Conservation Corps Experience in New Mexico, 1933-1942. | Las Cruces, N.M. | Yucca Free Press | 2000 |
| Newport Harbor Art Museum and Library of Congress, with introduction by Thomas J. Garver | Just Before the War: Urban America from 1935 to1941 as Seen by Photographers of the Farm Security Administration. | Balboa, CA | Newport Harbor Art Museum, | 1968 |
| Robinson, Greg with Jonathan van Harmelen | The Unknown Great: Stories of Japanese Americas at the Margins of History. | Seattle, WA | University of Washington Press | 2024 |
| Samuel, Lawrence, R. | The World War II War Bond Campaign. | New York, NY | Fordham University Press, | 2025 |
| Smith, James Clois, Jr., ed., with forward by Jack Loeffler | Spanish American Music In New Mexico, The WPA Era: Folk Songs, Dance Tunes, Singing Games, and Guitar Arrangements. | Santa Fe, N.M. | Sunstone Press | 2017 |
| Uchida, Yoshiko with an introduction by Traise Yamamoto | Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese American Family. | Seattle, WA | University of Washington Press | 2015 |
| Verdak, George, ed. and Steinmetz High School, Chicago | The Kangaroo and Others Too: Blockprints by members of the class | Chicago, IL | c. 1940 | |
| Wagner, Ann Prentice | 1934: A New Deal for Artists. | Washington, D.C. | Smithsonian American Art Museum | 2009 |
| Works Progress Administration (Handicraft Project) | Milwaukee Junior High School Block Prints. Selected by the Milwaukee Printmakers in a competition carried on in the public schools of | Milwaukee, WI | 1938 | |
| Works Progress Administration (Handicraft Project) | Milwaukee Senior High School Block Prints. Selected by the Milwaukee Printmakers in a competition carried on in the public schools of Milwaukee. | Milwaukee, WI | 1939 | |
| Works Progress Administration (New Mexico) | Spanish American Singing Games of New Mexico. | New Mexico | 1940 | |
| Works Progress Administration鈥擣ederal Music Project | Spanish American Folk Songs of New Mexico. | New Mexico | 1936 |