Exhibit:

The Great Depression: America in Economic Disaster

Preview of images

Part of Group:

Thiel College ENG 235 Sp24

Throughout history, The Great Depression takes a large part of it. The world that we live in was in total shambles, economically and socially. People lost their jobs, became homeless and were starving for food on the street. In history, we always want to see it from a first hand persepective. In this gallery, we will see The Great Depression from the eyes of people whose lives were stripped away from them. 

Images in this Exhibit

The Migrant Mother

During the Great Depression, everyone was affected but families took the greatest toll. In this photo, it shows the peak and plight of a mother. As migrants, they took the depression the hardest. The photographer is Dorothea Lang who was in California during this time. The woman in the photo is Florence Thompson, a thirty-two-year-old woman and mother of seven. She was a pea picker and as seen in the photo she is exhausted. During this time of economic despair, work was extremely limited. Due to that fact, those who did have a job needed to work long hours.(Smithsomian)  The poem that I...
Unemployment Protests

This photo was taken while during the unemployment protests. Young children were always not in school, they were on the front lines protesting. The school were closed and families had no choice to bring their children. The schools then started operating on reduced hours. Children were hoping railroad cars everyday. Over 200,000 kids were doing this. In total over 12,000,000 people were unemployed during the great depression. The sign itself speaks in volumes. It reads why can't you give my dad a job? Families...
Black Thursday

Black Thursday was the day the stock market crashed and forever changed the world forever. October 24th, 1929, was the essential day that the stock market crashed and began the start of the great depression. Banks and investment companies brought up stock to stem from the panic of investors. This was just the start but would become a continuous issue and begin the great depression. Dow Jones went down a significant amount on this day. It went down a significant eleven percent. In this photo, the people are gathered on the steps of The New York Stock Exchange. They were scared and confused...
The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl was a name for places where droughts caused severe dust storms. They are mostly common in places such as Texas and Nebraska. They can cause severe choking dust. The Dust Bowl intensified the Great Depression because of families turning to farming and migration for better work and living conditions. Only forty-three percent of people were doing farm work before they migrated. In 1934, 35 million acres of land were now useless because of farming. At the end of 1939, regular rainfall returned, ending the Dust Bowl. In Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma...
President Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt was president during the Great Depression. He was the twenty-sixth president of the United States. He became the president very quickly and suddenly due to William McKinley Young. The Square Deal was created by Roosevelt and was incorporated in the Bull Moose Party. Roosevelt helped Americans gain the faith in themselves after dealing with the Great Depression. His most famous quote is "There is nothing to fear but fear itself." Roosevelt also created The New Deal which helped people with new federal agencies. He also created the social security unit, unemployment...
Hoovervilles

Hooverville began in 1929. President Herbert Hoover was blamed for the economic and social conditions. He would soon be not reelected and president. Theodore Roosevelt would become president who reveals war once called shantytowns. They were usually constructed out of cardboard, tarp, paper, glass, lumber 10 and whatever people could find Structures were made with cast off stone and bricks that stood 20 feet high. Some shanties were less functioning than others. Usually, they would dig holes and make roofs over their heads. Washington DC and New York City were home to largest shanties St....
The New Deal

The new deal was a series of programs that were instituted during the Great Depression by President Franklin D Roosevelt. The goal was to restore prosperity to Americans. Fire side chats were President Roosevelt's way of speaking to the country. During his first fireside chat, he told Americans previously about the four-day bank holiday to stop people from withdrawing their money from shady banks. He told Americans to put their money back in the banks. By the end of the month 3/4 of the banks had reopened. The first 100 days as president is especially important for Roosevelt. He wanted to...
Fireside Chats

Fireside chats were President Roosevelt's way of reaching out to the entire country. Roosevelt became president at a time where the state of the country was in shambles. He started doing fire side chats on March 1933 and his last one was on June 1944 he spoke about various topics and always addressed the public not as " Americans" the first fireside chat was to talk about the bank holiday that he was implementing. Over 90% of American households had a radio in their homes. Roosevelt was not behind the desk with a microphone. During the war over 58% of people listened to the chats. When the...