THE GREAT DEPRESSION
OF THE 1930s
“Brother can you
spare 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 Sunday
April 14, 1935
24 hours of a
blinding dust storm
Dreaded blackblizzard covers
entire disaster area
Drought adds further
devastation
THE VICTIMS OF THE
DUST BOWL
Colorado
Kansas
Oklahoma
New Mexico
Texas
Devastation of their
cropland
Respiratory health
issues
Unsanitary living
Rampant crime
Debt-ridden families
DUST BOWL ORPHANS
Mass exodus to
California
Opportunities in
Russia
Migrant workers
become source of
cheap labor
RESOURCES
Angelis, 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: PrenticeHall,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 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: (b&w film copy of
negative of print)cph3c30123

Slide #2: Dust bowl farmers of west Texas in town. June, c1937
[photograph] Dorthea Lange, photographer. Used by permission of the
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: (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 to
World 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 for
Oregon. March, 1937.[photograph] Dorothea Lange, photographer.
Used by permission of the 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) 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, DC
20540. Source: America from the Great Depression to World War II:
Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Digital ID: (intermediary
roll film)fsa8b31760.

Slide #6: Oklahoma dust bowl refugees. San Fernando, California.
June, 1935. [photograph] Dorothea Lange, photographer. Used by
Permission 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 the
edge 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 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) fsa8b31762.
Slide #8: Migrant agricultural worker’s family. Seven children
without food. March, 1935. [photograph] Dorothea Lange,photographer.
Used by permission of Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Division Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from the Great
Depression 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 in
Sharecropper’s shack. Southeast Missouri Farms. May, 1938.
[photograph] Russell Lee, photographer. Used by permission 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:(b&w film copy
of 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 and
Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540. Source: America from the
Great Depression to World War II. Digital ID: (int.roll film)fsa8c14455.
