Primary Source Spotlight: Labor

Primary Source Spotlight: Labor

Primary source sets The Industrial Revolution in the United States American Federation of Labor & Quarry Workers Anarchist Emma Goldman Anthracite Coal Strike The “Bonus” Army The cause of industrial panics in the United States 1903 by Chicago Federation of Labor and Industrial Union Council Chicago Federation of Labor: historic newspaper coverage Civilian Conservation Corps With…

Today in History: Walker Evans

Today in History: Walker Evans

Today in History–July 16–the Library of Congress features photojournalist Walker Evans. On this date in 1936 Evans took a leave of absence from from the Farm Security Administration (FSA) to accept a summer assignment with Fortune magazine. Evans and writer James McGee  worked together to document the lives of sharecropper families in Alabama, which would eventually be published in the book, Let…

Primary Source Learning: Great Depression & World War II Primary Source Set

Primary Source Learning: Great Depression & World War II Primary Source Set

Have students use the primary sources in this set to tell a story about the period 1929-1945. At the depths of the great depression, which followed the stock market crash in October 1929, over one-quarter of the American workforce was out of work. But President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted a variety of “New Deal” programs and told…

Today in History: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Today in History: Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Today in History–January 20–the Library of Congress features Franklin Delano Roosevelt, inaugurated as U.S. President in January on this day in 1937. This was the first inauguration held in January but FDR’s second of four inaugurations, his first was held on March 4, 1933. Find out more about the longest serving president in our nation’s history by visiting the Today…

Learning from the Source: Dust Bowl Songs & Photographs

Learning from the Source: Dust Bowl Songs & Photographs

The Photographs from the FSA and OWI collection provide vivid scenes of the harshness of life in rural America during the Great Depression. Students can observe the effects of New Deal relief work by comparing pictures of makeshift shelters and tent cities with resettlement camps and showcase housing. Look at images of tents, migrant camps, and labor camps for examples. You might…