The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was established to provide work for unemployed citizens during the Great Depression (1929-39). The FTP began in August 1935 and flourished as the first and only government sponsored and subsidized theater program in the United States. It was headed by Hallie Flanagan (1890-1969) and was a way for theatrical professionals to gain employment during the Depression. The FTP was successful in both big cities, like New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago, as well as in small towns, like Spencer, MA, Mamaroneck, NY and Derry, NH, that had never seen a live theatrical production. The repertoire of plays was vast, including revivals of the classics and experimental new works like The Living Newspaper. The Living Newspapers were original dramas that dealt with everyday social issues. Besides giving employment to whites, the FTP also employed blacks. Sixteen Negro Theatre Units were created and the plays dealt with black issues like Haiti, folk history, and racism. The FTP also sponsored plays by the Children's Theatre Units, The Federal Theatre Circus, and Marionette Units.

Because all the plays needed advertising, The Federal Art Project (FAP), a section of the WPA, developed a poster division to help advertise the plays. The FAP wanted to improve commercial poster art, to raise it to a true art form. Its goal was to make poster design a profession. It put many young artists to work. They designed posters in the ways they were taught graphic design and in the ways they and their elders thought posters ought to look. But at the same time, they were also encouraged to experiment. The aim of the WPA/FAP "was to preserve the skill of the unemployed artist, not only accomplishes its purpose, but those returning to private industry do so with more knowledge in their profession and greater confidence in themselves" (Art for the Millions, p. 178).

Posters had changed little since the turn of the century. The most significant change was in printing methods, which became faster and better. This improvement is directly related to the silkscreening process. The original WPA poster divisions were small groups of poster painters who created very limited numbers of works. Each poster was hand lettered and painted, resulting in a few posters of mediocre quality. Then Anthony Velonis joined the division - he introduced the siikscreening process. This new process greatly increased the number of posters produced: as many as 600 posters could be made daily. It also greatly improved quality and raised the level of poster design to a fine art form.

Poster design had come to be seen as a profession because of recently published studies on poster design, the importation of posters from abroad, and the influence of modern art schools. Unfortunately, the works of these fine artists were lost and forgotten when World War II began; consequently, the posters were neglected and misinterpreted. Recently, museums, private galleries, and universities have begun to rediscover America's lost history and heritage from 1930s posters. This rediscovery is due in large part to the many talented and skilled artists, exhibiting excellent design and craftsmanship all to be seen in the slide collection of FTP posters at George Mason University.

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