The WPA & the Golden Age · Reading & the Stage
W.P.A. Federal Theatre presents "Native ground" by Virgil Geddes
Works Progress Administration, Federal Theatre Project, 1936
What it is
A silkscreen theatre poster from the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project, advertising Virgil Geddes's play "Native Ground" at Maxine Elliott's Theatre in New York. It was printed in color on board by the WPA poster division; the designer is unrecorded.
Why it matters
The Federal Theatre Project put out-of-work theatre people back on federal payroll during the Depression, and its poster division did the same for artists, turning silkscreen into a cheap, striking way to fill a play house. This bill sells a rural American drama to a Broadway-adjacent audience, and it belongs to the late-1930s moment when the Dust Bowl and the failing farm were the country's shared subject.
What to notice
Look at how the near-empty field does the work: a plow in the foreground and a farmhouse receding behind it, with no actor's face anywhere to be found.
The land, not a cast, is the star billing.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Format
- Theater poster
- Poster published
- Works Progress Administration, Federal Theatre Project, 1936
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 98516417
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government program work (WPA Federal Art Project), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 18x24" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
