Maryland State Archives

This collection consists of photographs taken and collected by the Maryland Writers' Project, a Baltimore-based office funded by the federal Works Progress Administration in the New Deal era. The Writers' Project was one of a number of federally-funded projects to provide jobs for out-of-work people during the Great Depression. Citizens were hired to write publications such as state guides, city guides, local histories, oral histories, ethnographies, and children's books.

These photographs represent images collected to publish, Maryland: A Guide to the Old Line State, American Pictorial Guide Series, (Maryland Writers Project, 1940). The collection includes photos of Maryland counties, Baltimore City, Cumberland, Ellicott City, Hagerstown, Frederick, Salisbury, St. Mary's City, Chesapeake Bay, agriculture, historic architecture, industry, railroads, and scenic views. NOTE: Many of the images were not selected for publication in the Guide.