1937: A Year in the Collections

The year that Amelia Earheart and her navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world was a tumultuous one. The Hindenburg airship went down in flames in New Jersey. Pablo Picasso completed his tragic masterpiece Guernica in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, with Ernest Hemingway reporting from Spain. 1937 also saw the publication of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and plenty of hot jazz. The Federal Art Project WPA programs supported murals, photography, and theater during a time of high unemployment, documenting rural and urban life in America.