No deal

Abstract

The impact of the New Deal has been a topic of ongoing historical investigation, with, in the past few decades, substantive research in New Deal relief programs on Americanist archaeology by disciplinary historians. The application of resources newly available through relief programs varied considerably geographically however, and this article uses Kansas as a case study of a state in which there was no federal New Deal archaeology. The article explores archaeological research conducted in the state during this era by the Smithsonian Institution as well as an attempt to secure funding for systematic investigations by the University of Kansas. The article highlights several factors that forestalled use of relief funding for archaeology.