Depression
Depression in two senses of the word, 1934, Haddon Heights, New Jersey, via Library of Congress.
The Sod
Leveling hummocks in dust bowl, thirty miles north of Dalhart, Texas. Farmer: “Every dime I got is tied up right here. If I don’t get it out, I’ve got to drive off and leave it. Where would I go and what would I do? I know what the land did once for me, maybe it will do it again.” Son: “It would be better if the sod had never been broke. My father’s broke plenty of it. Could I get a job in California?”
—Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration, June 1938. New York Public Library.
Migrant Girl in the Dust Bowl
“Migrant worker looking through back window of automobile near Prague, Oklahoma. Lincoln County, Oklahoma,” The New York Public Library.
The Past in the Present
Poster from 1936/37: “WPA Federal Theatre Presents ‘It Can’t Happen Here’…”