30 Iconic Photos Of The Great Depression

Last updated on November 5th, 2023 at 08:59 pm

The Great Depression was not merely a financial crisis but a seismic global event that reshaped the 20th century. Beginning with the infamous stock market crash of 1929 and stretching throughout the 1930s, this period saw the world stagger under unparalleled economic hardship.

Defining the Great Depression solely by the financial panic that gripped the world is to ignore the broader human story.

Millions were forced to confront the stark realities of hunger, unemployment, and unprecedented social upheaval, from the dusty despair of the American Dust Bowl to the rise of shantytowns or “Hoovervilles.”

Two young boys sit on their porch, 1935.

 

Hooverville built in Central Park.

 

Civilian Conservation Corps members repair a truck in Yosemite.

 

 

A bank run, 1933.

 

Kids line up for free soup and bread

 

Homeless man sleeps by the docks, 1935.

 

A soup line ran by Al Capone.

 

The homeless sit outside of their huts in Manhattan, NY.

 

A poor family during The Great Depression

 

 

Handing out food packages to the needy in New York City

 

Salvation Army soup kitchen

 

Sharecroppers

 

A family of migrants say grace before lunch.

 

The iconic children for sale photo

 

Two boys play a game of golf.

 

Waiting in line for assistance.

 

Waiting in line for food at a Franciscan church.

 

A dust storm in Stratford, Texas. April 18, 1935.

 

The iconic photo by Dorthea Lange of a migrant mother.

 

Heading to California in search of work.

 

Waiting for food

 

 

 

A young girl at a migrant camp.

 

A family poses outside of their shack in Klamath Falls.

 

A young boy shows off his bike. Photo by Dorthea Lange

 

Public works project in Washington DC

 

A dugout home

 

A juke joint in a sharecropper camp.

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