The Great Gallery
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1929–1939

The Great Depression

After the stock market crash of 1929, millions of people lost their jobs and savings. In the United States, the Dust Bowl blew away farmers' soil, and President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal created work programs that built roads, parks and post offices, and hired artists to paint murals and take photographs.

Why artists painted it

The government hired photographers like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans to document hard times. Their pictures are now treasured as art, and they show people with great dignity.

Migrant Mother Migrant Mother · Dorothea Lange, 1936

13 artworks about this moment

Migrant Mother Migrant Mother Dorothea Lange · 1936 👁️ Painted at the time Florence Owens Thompson sits in a pea-pickers' camp in California in 1936, with her children turned away. Farmer and Sons Walking in the Face of a Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma Farmer and Sons Walking in the Face of a Dust Storm, Cimarron County, Oklahoma Arthur Rothstein · 1936 👁️ Painted at the time A farmer and his sons walk bent against a huge dust cloud in Oklahoma in April 1936, during the Dust Bowl. Toward Los Angeles, California Toward Los Angeles, California Dorothea Lange · 1937 👁️ Painted at the time A man and woman carry their bags along an empty road in California in 1937, with a billboard above them that says 'Next time try the train.' Dorothea Lange's photo shows the ordeal of families who moved west to look for work. Power Farming Displaces Tenants, Childress County, Texas Power Farming Displaces Tenants, Childress County, Texas Dorothea Lange · 1938 👁️ Painted at the time An empty farmhouse stands in a wide field of plowed furrows in Texas in 1938, a farm where tractors had taken the place of families who once worked the land as tenant farmers. Ex-Slave with a Long Memory, Alabama Ex-Slave with a Long Memory, Alabama Dorothea Lange · 1938 👁️ Painted at the time An elderly woman in Alabama who was born into slavery stands in front of her house in 1938. Allie Mae Burroughs, Hale County, Alabama Allie Mae Burroughs, Hale County, Alabama Walker Evans · 1936 👁️ Painted at the time Allie Mae Burroughs, the wife of a cotton sharecropper, looks straight at the camera in 1936. Frank Tengle, Bud Fields, and Floyd Burroughs, Cotton Sharecroppers Frank Tengle, Bud Fields, and Floyd Burroughs, Cotton Sharecroppers Walker Evans · 1936 👁️ Painted at the time Three cotton sharecroppers sit together on a porch in Alabama in 1936. Floyd Burroughs, Cotton Sharecropper, Hale County, Alabama Floyd Burroughs, Cotton Sharecropper, Hale County, Alabama Walker Evans · 1936 👁️ Painted at the time Floyd Burroughs, a cotton sharecropper in Alabama, looks into the camera in 1936. Jim Norris, Homesteader, Pie Town, New Mexico Jim Norris, Homesteader, Pie Town, New Mexico Russell Lee · 1940 👁️ Painted at the time Jim Norris, a homesteader in Pie Town, New Mexico, in 1940, photographed in rare color film by Russell Lee for the government. School Children Singing, Pie Town, New Mexico School Children Singing, Pie Town, New Mexico Russell Lee · 1940 👁️ Painted at the time Children sing together in a school in Pie Town, New Mexico, in 1940, in a color photograph by Russell Lee. American Gothic, Washington, D.C. American Gothic, Washington, D.C. Gordon Parks · 1942 👁️ Painted at the time Ella Watson, a cleaning woman at a government office, stands with a mop and broom in front of an American flag in 1942. Work Pays America! Work Pays America! Works Progress Administration poster artist · 1937 👁️ Painted at the time A poster from the Works Progress Administration, the New Deal program that put millions of Americans back to work building roads, bridges and schools, as well as paying artists and writers. Ella Watson at Home, Washington, D.C. Ella Watson at Home, Washington, D.C. Gordon Parks · 1942 👁️ Painted at the time Ella Watson with her family at home in Washington, D.C., in 1942, in a photograph by Gordon Parks.