The Great Depression and drought hit the people of Missouri, the ‘Show Me” state, hard just as in other states. However, the people found a way to survive in the rural sections. Some of the ways they made do with whatever they had is pretty amazing. These photographs ‘show’ how life was in 1936 for many […]
These photographs taken by Russell Lee in July 1942 document the efforts of the energetic residents of Ola, Idaho and show the backbone of America. Russell Lee reported “Some of the members are in the armed services and others are working in war factories and others are helping neighbors who are haying. One member of […]
Ola, Idaho applied and received for two loans from the Government to open a cooperative sawmill to save the town from economic ruin. Their efforts paid off and when photographer Russell Lee returned to the town in 1942, the smiles on faces of the citizens of Ola reveal their success. Member of the Ola self-help […]
The Great Depression hit Idaho hard. From 1929 to 1932, the income of the average Idahoan dropped nearly fifty percent. Photographer Dorothea Lange visited Gem County’s Squaw Creek Valley, Ola, Idaho in October and November 1939 and took many pictures of the residents. These photographs reveal Idaho’s social history during the Depression and early war years. […]
The picturesque town of Ola, Idaho was an isolated community due to impassable roads much of the winter and this created significant problems for them during the Great Depression. Ola is an unincorporated community in Gem County, Idaho, United States. It is located approximately 30 miles north of Emmett. Carroll Baird homesteaded along Squaw Creek, less than […]
The Great Depression and Dust Bowl were difficult years in United States History. Many people left their farms and became migrant workers due to the Dust Bowl and traveled to California to pick vegetables and fruit. This song Why don’t you write a letter home? was performed by Sam Bell in Tuolumne County, California on […]
Cotton was a major commodity for the Lake Dick Project Community, Arkansas in 1938. (New Deal Project) The fields were so extensive that day laborers had to be employed to pick the cotton. The bags of cotton picked by each laborer was weighed and recorded in the fields as seen by the photographs below taken […]
During the Depression, Circleville, Ohio still had some business operating. Eshelman’s Feed Mill employed 150-200 men the year ’round. The pay averaged about eighty-five cents an hour. Another business, Container Corporation of America made paper out of straw and absorbed the by-product of all neighboring farms. In addition, there were still a number of canneries and […]
In the Great Depression, many Circleville, Ohio farms were foreclosed on and the farmers families were forced to move to town. The small town did their best to handle the large influx of people. Street Scenes Here are some street scenes from 1938 taken by Artist and photographer, Ben Shahn of people living there. The […]
Photographs bring back memories These photographs will bring back memories of the smell of fresh washed clothes hung out to dry on the line, the milkman delivering milk to your house, and pushing babies in strollers down the sidewalk on a beautiful fall day. Ah….the good old days! Greenhills is a village in Hamilton County, Ohio, United […]
