Article: Free show displaying artists from Great Depression at National Archives in Washington.(Originated from Knight-Ridder Newspapers)

WASHINGTON _ Like millions of Americans, artists were hard hit by the Great Depression. One observer told how they traded ``a canvas for a wedding ring, a watercolor for a new shirt, an etching for a carton of cigarettes.''

Their plight was perfectly expressed in a letter that young Ruth Zakheim mailed to Washington, D.C., after her father had painted a fresco in San Francisco's Coit Tower.

``I was wondering if there was another fresco he might do,'' the little girl wrote. ``He needs the money so badly ... Mother says we may lose our home if we do not make the next installment on the mortgage.''

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal bailed ...

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