THE GREAT DEPRESSION

OF THE 1930’S

“Brother can youspare a dime?”

STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929

“Black Thursday”,

October 24, 1929

“Black Tuesday”, October 29, 1929

STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY

DISINTEGRATES

Factories and mines close

Banks are worthless

Consumer buying comes to a standstill

1932 – AMERICAN DREAMS ARE SHATTERED

14 million Americans are jobless (almost 1/3 the workforce)

Banks foreclose on houses and farms

No food, no clothes, no jobs

Recycled lifestyle

DUST BOWL (DUST STORMS) OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS 1934-

1935

Black SundayApril 14, 1935

24 hours of a blinding dust stormDreaded black-blizzard covers entire disaster areaDrought adds further devastation

THE VICTIMS OF THE DUST BOWL

ColoradoKansasOklahomaNew MexicoTexas

Devastation of their cropland

Respiratory health issues

Unsanitary living

Rampant crime

Debt-ridden families

DUST BOWL ORPHANS

Mass exodus to CaliforniaOpportunities in RussiaMigrant workers become source of cheap labor

RESOURCESAngelis, Therese. The Dust Bowl. Philadelphia: Chelsea House

Pub., c1989.Farris, John. The dust bowl. San Diego: Lucent Books, c1989.Goldston, Robert. The Great Depression: The United States in the

Thirties. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., c1968.Katz, William Loren. An album of the Great Depression. New York:

Franklin Watts, c1978.McArthur, Debra. The dust bowl and the Depression in American

history. Enslow, c2002.Shannon,David A., ed. The Great Depression. New Jersey:

Prentice-Hall,c1960.Shindo, Charles J. Dust bowl migrants in American imagination.

University of Kansas, c1997.The American Memory Collection.The American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl.

SOURCE INFORMATION FOR SLIDES 1&2

OF POWER POINT PRESENTATION

Slide #1: Son of farmer in dust bowl area. April, 1936 [photograph]Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. Used by permission of the Library

ofCongress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC 20540.Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photo-graphs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Digital ID: (b&w film copy ofnegative of print)cph3c30123

Slide #2: Dust bowl farmers of west Texas in town. June, c1937 [photograph] Dorthea Lange, photographer. Used by permission of

theLibrary of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington,

DC20540. Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI,1935-1945. Digital ID: (int. film)Fsa8b38645.

SOURCE INFORMATION FOR SLIDES 3&4

OF POWER POINT PRESENTATION

Slide #3: Abandoned farm in the dust bowl area, Oklahoma. April,C1936. [photograph] Arthur Rothstein, photographer. Used by permission of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division,Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from the Great Depression toWorld War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Digital ID:(int. film)fsa8b38293.

Slide #4: Along a California highway, a dust bowl refugee bound forOregon. March, 1937.[photograph] Dorothea Lange, photographer. Used by permission of the Library of Congress Prints and PhotographsDivision, Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945.Digital ID: (intermediary roll film) fsa8b31789..

SOURCE INFORMATION FOR SLIDES 5&6

OF POWER POINT PRESENTATION

Slide #5: Home of a dust bowl refugee in California. March, 1937.[photograph] Dorothea Lange, photographer. Used by permission of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, DC20540.Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II:Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Digital ID: (intermediaryroll film)fsa8b31760.

Slide #6: Oklahoma dust bowl refugees. San Fernando, California.June, 1935. [photograph] Dorothea Lange, photographer. Used byPermission of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division,Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Digital ID:(intermediary roll film) fsa8b27316.

SOURCE INFORMATION FOR SLIDES 7&8

OF POWER POINT PRESENTATION

Slide #7: Squatter camp on county road near Calipatria. Forty families from the dust bowl have been camped here for months on theedge of the pea fields. There has been no work because the crop was frozen. March, 1937. [photograph] Dorothea Lange, photographer.Used by permission of Library of Congress Prints and PhotographsDivision Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945.Digital ID: (intermediary roll film) fsa8b31762.

Slide #8: Migrant agricultural worker’s family. Seven childrenwithout food. March, 1935. [photograph] Dorothea Lange,photographer.Used by permission of Library of Congress Prints and PhotographsDivision Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from the GreatDepression to World War II. Digital ID:(b&w copy scan)fsa8b29525

SOURCE INFORMATION FOR SLIDES 9&10 OF POWER POINT

PRESENTATION

Slide 9: Mother washing feet and cleaning up daughter’s inSharecropper’s shack. Southeast Missouri Farms. May, 1938.[photograph] Russell Lee, photographer. Used by permission of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC20540. Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II:Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Digital ID:(b&w film copyof negative print) cph3c18449.

Slide 10: Construction worker with wife and neighbor’s child in tent home near Alexandria, Louisiana. Ten men, two women, and two children live here. December, 1940. [photograph] Marion Post Wolcott,Photographer. Used by permission of Library of Congress Prints andPhotographs Division Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from theGreat Depression to World War II. Digital ID: (int.roll film)fsa8c14455.