Great Depression: Media
economy
Videos
The impact of the Great Depression on Americans
Learn three facts about the economic devastation of the Great Depression.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
What Is Inflation?
Learn more about how inflation functions in the economy.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Learn about the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and China and its aftermath
In September 1931 the Japanese Imperial Army invades Manchuria, and refugees flee...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Examine the roles of communism, fascism, and the Great Depression in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Republicans, abandoned by the democracies and relying on aid from the communists,...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Discover how Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration helped flourish museums in America
A discussion concerning why American museums flourished in the 1930s, from the documentary...
Video: Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
view archival footage of the impoverished American population in the aftermath of the stock market crash of 1929
“The unemployed, the soup kitchens, the grinding poverty, and the despair”—the worldwide...
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Who was the first woman in the U.S. cabinet?
Learn more about the life and career of Frances Perkins.
Video: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Know about American industrial design and the contribution of Norman Bel Geddes in popularising modern styles
Learn about American industrial design of the 20th century, particularly the work...
Video: © Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Learn about the history and effects of the Works Progress Administration in the American Midwest during the Great Depression
Overview of the Works Progress Administration.
Video: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Works Progress Administration: museum aid
Museums in the United States were among the beneficiaries of Works Progress Administration...
Video: Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Images
Great Depression: soup kitchen
Unemployed men standing in line outside a soup kitchen, Chicago.
© Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com
sharecroppers
Evicted sharecroppers along a road in southeastern Missouri, U.S., January 1939.
Arthur Rothstein—Farm Security Administration/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-DIG-fsa-8a10410)
Black Thursday stock market crash
People gathering on the steps of the building across from the New York Stock Exchange...
Keystone—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Great Depression: bank holiday
Sign in front of a New York City theatre, indicating that it would "accept checks...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Agricultural Adjustment Administration
Farmers gathering in Eufaula, Okla., to discuss the Agricultural Adjustment Administration...
Office of War Information Photograph Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: fsa 8b23920)
Great Depression: breadline
Breadline in New York City's Bryant Park during the Great Depression.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
dust cloud
Dust clouds over the Texas Panhandle, photograph by Farm Security Administration...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Great Depression: housing
Shack, built of loose boards and parts of boxes, in New York City during the Great...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Great Depression: apple seller
Man selling apples during the Great Depression.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” sheet music
Cover of sheet music to “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” (1932), words by E.Y. Harburg...
The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music, Special Collections, the Milton S. Eisenhower Library of The Johns Hopkins University
Great Depression: breadline
Detail of a sculpture by George Segal depicting unemployed men in a breadline during...
© Zack Frank/stock.adobe.com
Dorothea Lange: Migrant Mother
Migrant Mother, photograph by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration,...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-DIG-fsa-8b29516)
book burning
Germans burning books on the Bebelplatz, Berlin, 1933.
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
farmer
African American farmer using a mule-drawn cultivator, photographed by Doris Ullman....
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
dust jacket of The Grapes of Wrath
First-edition dust jacket of The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck;...
Viking Press/Penguin Group; Between the Covers Rare Books, Inc., Merchantville, NJ
William Faulkner
William Faulkner, photograph by Carl Van Vechten, c. 1954.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Carl Van Vechten Collection (Digital file no. 5a51970)
Monopoly board game
A 1935 edition of the board game Monopoly. It became a popular amusement during the...
MONOPOLY ® & © Hasbro, Inc. Used with permission.
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time
Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Swing Time (1936).
© 1936 RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
The Grapes of Wrath
Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell in The Grapes of Wrath (1940).
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation/The Museum of Art Film Stills Archive, New York City
Civilian Conservation Corps
New members of the Civilian Conservation Corps waiting to be fitted for shoes at...
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night
Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night (1934), directed...
Courtesy of Columbia Pictures Corporation
Meet John Doe
(From left) Walter Brennan, Gary Cooper, and Barbara Stanwyck in Meet John Doe...
© 1941 Warner Brothers, Inc.; photograph from a private collection
The Wizard of Oz
(From left) The Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), Dorothy (Judy...
© 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.
Great Depression: workers at a canning plant
Workers, many of them migrants, grading beans at a canning plant in Florida in 1937....
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Arthur Rothstein (neg. no. LC-USF34-005788-D)
Great Depression: Beacon Light Mission
Men sleeping in the Beacon Light Mission in New York City during the Great Depression.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
Great Depression: miners in Alabama
Two African American iron ore miners during the Great Depression of the 1930s, Jefferson...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Black Thursday
People gather on the steps of a building across from the New York Stock Exchange...
Keystone—Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Migrant Mother
Migrant Mother is Dorothea Lange's most famous photograph. It was taken...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
New Deal: Civilian Conservation Corps
Men in the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the New Deal programs created in the...
FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was president of the United States when the Great Depression began...
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (hec 18560)
stock market crash of 1929
A crowd gathering outside the New York Stock Exchange following the stock market...
Pacific and Atlantic Photos, Inc./Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-123429)
Great Depression: dust storm
A dust storm approaches Stratford, Texas, in April 1935.
George E. Marsh Album/NOAA
Hooverville
During the Great Depression, many homeless people had to build their own shelters...
Washington State Archives/Digital Archives
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital File Number: cph 3c17121)
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