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New Deal archaeology survey and excavation projects across the lower 48 states exhibit considerable geographic variation in their nature and extent. Part of this variation can be linked to strong regional personalities, while other variation depended on local political acceptance of or resistance to New Deal programs. The nature of the archaeological record itself influenced the amount of New Deal archaeology within a region. These factors are considered in the discussion of when and where work relief archaeological projects were conducted in the United States during the Great Depression.

Who studies the historiography of archaeology? Who reads the history of the discipline? Recent years have seen growing interest in the history of archaeology as is reflected in works such as Christenson (1989), Trigger (1989; 2006), Chakrabarti (1988; 2003), Singh (2004), Díaz-Andreu (2007), and special issues in Antiquity (Schlanger 2002) and Complutum (Moro Abadia Huth 2013). The target audience for these publications is specialists. So what is novel about geographic and spatial approaches in the history of archaeology?

I have recently launched an effort to create a GIS of all New Deal-funded archaeological investigations conducted in the 48 states that comprised the USA during the Great Depression (Means 2011). This effort was inspired by the persistent notion that New Deal archaeology was largely limited to the southeastern United States, where the generally warmer climate was seen as conducive to the lengthy field seasons that ensured continuous work for the unemployed (Lyon 1996). The large mound sites that dotted the southeastern USA also ensured that there would be sufficient work for the large relief crews seen as ideal from the perspective of federal officials. While it may prove true that the majority of New Deal archaeology was conducted in the southeast, it is also demonstrably true that the various ‘Alphabet Soup’ work relief programs – notably the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and the Works Progress Administration/Work Projects Administration (WPA) – supported archaeological investigations throughout the USA. In my preliminary efforts to create a GIS for New Deal archaeology, I have determined that at least 75 percent of the 48 states that comprised the USA during the Great Depression had some form of federally funded work relief survey or excavation.