New Deal Network
Information about Roosevelt's program dealing with the Great Depression. Includes a very wide variety of resources relating to the 1930s, as affected by the New Deal.

New Deal Cultural Programs: Experiments in Cultural Democracy
"Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal cultural programs marked the U.S. government's first big, direct investment in cultural development. In many ways, they present a mirror image of today's federal policy picture...." This is a very good, brief outline of those programs.

FDR Cartoon Collection
This site contains political cartoons from the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This preservation project is a cooperative venture of the AP Computer Math class and the AP United States History classes at Niskayuna High School.

Fireside Chats of Franklin D. Roosevelt
These were a series of regular radio programs in which President Roosevelt addressed the American people about problems facing the nation. This collection may not be complete.

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters From Children of the Great Depression
During the Great Depression, thousands of young people wrote to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for help. They asked for clothing, money, and other forms of assistance. Be sure to see the three-part essay on How the Depression Affected Children.

Herbert Hoover: Thirty-First President, 1929-1933
Son of a Quaker blacksmith, Herbert Clark Hoover brought to the Presidency an unparalleled reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and humanitarian. See also the resources at the online Hoover Presidential Library.

More Information On Herbert Hoover
Thirty-First President, 1929-1933. Includes sections on: Presidential Election Results, Cabinet Members, Notable Internet Biographies, Historical Documents, etc.

Greatest Films of the 1930s
This essay gives an overview of the great films of the decade, and links to special sections on selected films of that period. Well written and documented! Makes reference to related historical events and influences.

A Century of Progress 1933-34
A Century of Progress International Exposition was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Chicago. Read about the exhibits and the planning that went into this project...

America In the Thirties
A variety of cultural connections are displayed in a timeline approach. Be sure to choose a medium (film, print, air) or timeline at the top of the page0000000 to get started. See also: Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs.
 
 

Special Feature: Sources Related to To Kill A Mockingbird 

SPECIAL RESOURCE: Student Survival Guide for To Kill A Mockingbird  This is a chapter-by-chapter explanation and discussion of the book's Vocabulary, Allusions, and Idioms. Helps better understand what the characters are experiencing and talking about. *Be sure to scroll down the Welcome" page. The Klan: Brief Description   This is a brief overview of the Klan history and its key leaders. The Klan enjoys its greatest hour  This brief explanation of the Klan includes an interesting picture of Klansmen marching in Washington, DC. United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC)  A group formed after the Civil War that wants to preserve the earlier way of life in the South.  A Hundred Years of terror A special report on the history of the Ku Klux Klan, by the Southern poverty Law Center. Covers from the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. Scottsboro: An American Tragedy   This site is from the PBS TV special about the Scottsboro trials, which formed the basis of Tom Robinson's trial in the novel. Be sure to look at the Maps, People & Events and Timeline to better understand what happened.  The Scottsboro Trials Explores the real trial of a group of African-American men, which is often pointed to as an example of injustice. It is also thought to be the model for the trial scene in "To Kill A Mockingbird". Many of the documents are excerpted from the book, "Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird." Interviews: Growing Up White In The South Of The 1930s Like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, the three women in this interview grew up in the deep South of the 1930s. All three were members of what could be described as prominent southern families. Interview: Growing Up Black In The 1930s In Alabama Mrs. Peacolia Barge, born in 1923, lived as a small child in an area called McCulley's Quarters and grew up in Bessemer just outside Birmingham, Alabama. Mrs. Barge completed her college degree after her marriage and then began a long career in teaching. Her grandparents were slaves in Alabama, and her three children are college-educated, professional men and women. Women of the Klan: Racism and Gender in the 1920s Short essay on women in the Klan, with respect to racism. Photographs of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination  Photographers working for the Farm Security Administration Historical Section were encouraged to document continuity and change in many aspects of life in America during the years the unit was in operation. They were particularly encouraged to photograph billboards and signs as one indicator of such developments.  The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Jim Crow Outside the South  Segregation via "Jim Crow" laws and practices is explored at this site, as it occurred both inside and outside the South! The South's Jim Crow laws were adapted in the states indicated below to discriminate against other ethnicities, cultures, and religions, as well as against African Americans. This information is from a PBS Special that explores segregation in America from 1870s to 1950s.

The Depression News
This site from the Michigan Historical Museum shows and explaing different events and things that were happening in American culture furing the Great depression.

New Deal Cultural Programs: Experiments in Cultural Democracy
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal cultural programs marked the U.S. government's first big, direct investment in cultural development: their goals were clearly stated and democratic; they supported activities not already subsidized by private sector patrons, rather than following private patrons' leads; and they emphasized the interrelatedness of culture with all aspects of life, not the separateness of a rarefied art world.

Voices from the Dust Bowl
This collection consists of audio recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, publications, and ephemera generated during two separate documentation trips to California farm labor camps in 1940-41, sponsored by the Archive of American Folk Song. Includes "The Migrant Experience" an informative essay about life in farm labor camps.

Media Timeline for the Thirties
Lists the important events in the various media worlds; publishing, newspapers, musical performance, etc. (From the University of Minnesota.)

Social Security History
Exceptionally well presented collection of information on the history of the Social Security program and Social Security Administration. A mix of general-interest material and items that may appeal primarily to scholars. Graphics and photos abound, and there are sound and video clips.

"Screwball" Comedies
A style of movie comedy that flourished during the Great Depression and into the first part of the 1940s decade. Helpful in understanding how Americans endured the hard times of that era. Here is another Screwball Comedy home page with more extensive information.

Woody Guthrie
From the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: A popular folk singer and writer of the Thirties and Forties who had a major influence on American life, including Sixties rock music. Wrote: "This Land Is Your Land."

Pulp Fiction Central
A colorful type of popular fiction emerged in the first part of the 20th Century, pulp fiction. This site offers a broad collection of links to many examples of this type of popular literature.

The Drought
One of the most devastating events of the Thirties was the Dust Bowl. This story tells how and why it happened to the people who lived there then. See also: Black Sunday (April 14, 1935); also, Surviving the Dust Bowl, one Kansas wheat farmer's own story.

Photographs From 1939-1945
These two collections consist of the photographs produced by a pair of government photography units within the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Office of War Information(OWI) between 1939 and 1945. This release provides access to over 55,000 black-and-white images from the collection, as well as 1600 color photographs taken during the latter days of the project. Provided by the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties
Multicultural collection that includes sound recordings, still photos, drawings and written documents from a variety of European ethnic and English- and Spanish-speaking communities in Northern California and elsewhere. Includes an excellent introduction, The Ethnographic Experience: Sidney Robertson Cowell in Northern California, which explains how the music was collected, and the the life and times of the collectors.

American Life Histories- Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project
"These life histories were written by the staff of the Folklore Project of the U.S. Work Projects Administration (WPA) from 1936-1940... During the Great Depression of the 1930s, as many as one out of four Americans could not find jobs. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), put 8,500,000 jobless to work, mostly on projects that required manual labor. Some workers were writers who interviewed interesting Americans, and them wrote about them.  See: Voices from the Thirties: An Introduction to the WPA Life Histories Collection for an explanation of how the writers gathered their stories from the people of America."

American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936
"The collection consists of 4,500 photographs documenting natural environments, ecologies, and plant communities in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. Produced between 1891 and 1936, these photographs provide an overview of important representative natural landscapes across the nation. They demonstrate the character of a wide range of American topography, its forestation, aridity, shifting coastal dune complexes, and watercourses."

Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America (1935-1955)
Over 29,000 images primarily of architectural subjects, including interiors and exteriors of homes, stores, offices, factories, historic buildings,homes of notable Americans, and of several U.S. presidents, as well as color images of the 1939-40 New York World's Fair.

Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten, 1932-1964
1,400 Portraits of literary figures, artists, and celebrities; scenic views, mostly in the Northeast. Includes African Americans, celebrities and prominent individuals, scenic views. Consists of 1,395 photographs taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between 1932 and 1964.

Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959
From the mid 1920s through the 1950s, this collection(about 14,350 photographs online) documents the architecture and social life of the Washington metropolitan area in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Includes a special presentation: Discovering Theodor Horydczak's Washington.

They Still Draw Pictures: Drawings Made by Spanish Children During the Spanish Civil War
Exhibition of 609 drawings made by school children in Spain and in refugee centers in France during the Spanish Civil War.