The Museum Extension Program (M.E.P.) 1935-1943

Native Navaho

The Museum Extension Project  is one of the least known of the Work Progress Administration (WPA) programs, yet was one of the most abundant in terms of progressiveness, considering it did not only create jobs which helped insure our future, but the work was for furthering a new way of educating America’s young peoples.  The MEP turned out millions of pieces of "visual culture," including dioramas, puppets, costumes, 3D models, maps and more into the hands of children.The Museum Extension Project emerged out of the Division of Women’s and Professional Projects which is a unit of the WPA that focused on the relief and employment programs for women and white-collar workers.


The various WPA Museum Extension Projects, however are little known and understood.  Through in depth research it has been revealed that at least twenty-four different states created their own branches of MEP, all ranging in specific names and goals, but still centered around “visual cultural.”

American Family Pt. 2

The first created and most important branch of MEP’s history is the, Pennsylvania's Museum Extension Project (PMEP).  Also the largest and most diverse or the MEPs, PMEP was the first to instigate the concept, and was used as an example of the MEPs that followed.  The PMEP integrated and utilized  the abilities of people who were unemployed with all sorts of Unusual specialties, from historian to artisan.