The New York Times is time-travelling, Going Down the Road, revisiting states and landmarks covered by the American Guide Series of books, produced between 1935 and 1943 by the Federal Writers Project. Thousands of writers – including Studs Terkel, Saul Bellow and Nelson Algren – were sent out to pen what turned into a collective portrait cum national inventory of America.

  John Steinbeck said of the guides in Travels with Charley (1962): ”The complete set comprises the most comprehensive account of the United States ever got together, and nothing since has even approached it. It was compiled during the Depression by the best writers in America, who were, if that is possible, more depressed than any other group while maintaining their inalienable instinct for eating.”