Elsa Ulbricht was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 18, 1885. In 1906 she received a
diploma from the Wisconsin State Normal School in Milwaukee and taught kindergarten from
1906 to 1909 in the Milwaukee Public Schools. Ulbricht received a certificate from the
Wisconsin School of Art in 1909 and a diploma from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York,
in 1911 and in 1930 a bachelor's degree in education from the Milwaukee State Teachers
College. She taught art and art education at the Milwaukee State Teachers College from 1911
to 1950 and the Wisconsin State College, Milwaukee, from 1951 until her retirement in 1955.
She served as director of the Art Department from 1953 to 1955. Ulbricht died on March 13,
1980.
In 1935 Ulbricht became the director and organizer of the government-sponsored Works
Progress Administration (WPA) Handicraft Project. The project helped remove hundreds from
the welfare rolls and provided many workers with the training and skills they needed to
qualify for jobs in the private sector; over five thousand unskilled poor women, paid $50
per month, produced work for this program making useful artistic items including draperies,
books, dolls, costumes, furniture, rugs, and prints. Ulbricht hired about 50 artists at $75
a month to teach the workers craft skills and design articles that could be mass produced.
The results of this project reached every state and attracted the attention of Eleanor
Roosevelt, who came to visit Milwaukee and its WPA Handicraft Project. The project was
discontinued in 1943 largely as a result of the economic recovery and the availability of
jobs in the private sector.
