Great Depression photos
Photographs of the Great Depression, many made by Farm Security Administration photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Arthur Rothstein: breadlines, migrant workers, farms and small towns in the 1930s.
Why they are free to use: The FSA/OWI photographs were made for the US government and are not protected by copyright in the US. Each photo's page shows its own licence basis and a credit line.
Breadlines and soup kitchens
Search “men waiting in a breadline during the Great Depression” for more, or ask Claude for it
Bowery men waiting for bread in bread line, New York City, Bain Collection (cropped)
1910-02-07 · Library of Congress
Bowery men waiting for bread in bread line, New York City *Abstract/medium:.
1910 · Library of Congress
Men in bread line on 41st St., New York City
1915 · Library of Congress
Waiting for the semimonthly relief checks at Calipatria, Imperial Valley, California. Typical story: fifteen years ago they owned farms in Oklahoma. Lost them through foreclosure when cotton prices fell after the war. Became tenants and sharecroppers. With the drought and dust they came West, 1934-1
1935-03 · Library of Congress
Bowery men waiting for bread in bread line, New York City, Bain Collection
1910-02-07 · Library of Congress
Bread lines - Bowery men waiting on Fleischman's Bread Line *Abstract/medium:.
1913 · Library of Congress
Men with coffee and bread from bread lines, 41st Street, New York City
1915 · Library of Congress
Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone, 02/1931
1931-02 · U.S. National Archives
Migrant families
Search “migrant farm worker family during the Depression” for more, or ask Claude for it
Migrant Family in Salinas, CA
1939-04 · Library of Congress
Between Weedpatch and Lamont, Kern County, California. Children living in camp. Rent $2.75 plus el.
1940-04-12 · U.S. National Archives
Homeless family of seven, walking the highway from Phoenix, Arizona
1939-02 · Library of Congress
Family of a migratory fruit worker from Tennessee now camped in a field near the packinghouse at Winter Haven, Florida, 8a08231
1937-01 · Library of Congress
Mexican Labor Off for the Melon Fields in the Imperial Valley, California
1935-07 · Wikimedia Commons
Flood refugee family in Hall County, near Memphis, Texas, 8b31968
1937-05 · Library of Congress
Weedpatch, Kern County, California. Families from Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas are rapidly settling.
1940-04-12 · U.S. National Archives
Near Coolidge, Maricopa County, Arizona. Family labor at cotton picking time in the fields of the Ca.
1940-11 · U.S. National Archives
The Dust Bowl
Search “Dust Bowl farm buried by dust storm 1930s” for more, or ask Claude for it
Soil blown by dust bowl winds piled up in large drifts on a farm, 01322u
1936-03 · Library of Congress
Dust Bowl winds pile up against barn in Kansas
1936-03 · Library of Congress
In the dust storm area of the Southwest, valuable topsoil has been blown away by the winds from the fields into drifts along the fences. Dry farm near mills, New Mexico, where the Resettlement administration is restoring 70,000 acres to pasture grass, protecting the land from further devestaion.
c. 1942 · U.S. National Archives
Dust-storm-Texas-1935 (cropped)
1935-04-18 · Wikimedia Commons
Dust storm, New Mexico, 3c30920u
1935-04 · Library of Congress
Dust Storms; "One of South Dakota's Black Blizzards, 1934"
c. 1934 · U.S. National Archives
Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma, 00241u
1936-04 · Library of Congress
Dust storm, New Mexico, 3c30920u
1935-04 · Library of Congress
Small towns and main streets
Search “main street of a small town in the 1930s” for more, or ask Claude for it
Main street, coal mining community company houses, Chaplin, West Virginia * Creator(s): Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990, photographer * Date Created/Published: 1938 Sept. * Medium:; 35 mm. *.) * Rights Advisory: No k
1938-09 · Library of Congress
Main street. Aliquippa, Pennsylvania Contributor Names: Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985, photographer Created / Published: 1938 July.
1938-07 · Library of Congress
Minetta Good - Main Street, c. 1935–40
c. 1935 · Wikimedia Commons
Downtown Greensboro Alabama in the 1930s
1935–1936 · Library of Congress
Houma Church Street paved 1930s WPA
1930 · Wikimedia Commons
Shopping center of Eldorado, Illinois, 8b17495
1939-01 · Library of Congress
Eldorado IL Grand 1939
1939-01 · Library of Congress
Caddo, Oklahoma 1938
1938-06 · Library of Congress
Farm life
Search “farmer and family at their farm in the 1930s” for more, or ask Claude for it
German American Farme Family 1938
1938-10 · Library of Congress
Mennonite couple with baby Montana 1937
1937-11 · Library of Congress
Coal miner and wife and children. He has been injured in mines four times. Since last year, has been refused work, now is on relief. Pursglove, Scotts Run, West Virginia
1938 · Library of Congress
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Ostermeyer, homesteaders, Miller Township, Woodbury County, Iowa, 8a21553
1936-12 · Library of Congress
Farmer?
1936 · Library of Congress
Rehabilitation clients, Boone County, Arkansas, 8a16222
1935-10 · Library of Congress
Destitute tenant farmer's family, Ozark Mountains, Arkansas, 8a16361
1935-10 · Library of Congress
Frank Tengle, an Alabama sharecropper, and family singing hymns
1935 · Library of Congress
Finding photos for a script?
Add Find Any Photo to Claude and ask for photos for each part of your script. Claude searches this index, shows you the matches and writes the credit lines.
Add to Claude for free