After the stock market crash of 1929, America spent the next decade enduring and surviving the Great Depression. Unemployment peaked in 1932 at 25 percent, more than 5,000 banks failed, and Americans lined up at soup kitchens. The turmoil and hardships of the 1930s have become a critical component of our nation’s narrative of resilience and reinvention.
From the wreckage of the Great Depression emerged an American landscape made richer by programs like the Works Progress Association, designed to employ millions of Americans through public works projects, including artistic endeavors.
During May Deschutes Public Library will highlight the history, art and people of the Great Depression in support of the High Desert Museum new exhibit, Art for a Nation: Inspiration from the Great Depression. Explore prohibition, Woody Guthrie, Depression-era Bend, and WPA art and literature projects as part of the series at Deschutes Public Library.
