12 Photos Taken In Michigan During The Great Depression

During the height of the Great Depression in the 1930s, the U.S. government wanted to capture the struggles experienced by all Americans, so photographers were sent to all the states. It was a part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Policies to capture folks in their natural state.

As part of this revitalizing of the country, the Resettlement Administration was established to help relocate people put of out work. At the same time in Michigan, great unrest was unfolding among workers in the automotive industry, resulting in uprisings within the United Autoworkers, including the most infamous of them all – the 1936-1937 Flint sit-down strike. Here, you’ll witness some rare footage, just released by Yale University and the Library of Congress in a collection of some 170,000 images known as Photogrammer.

A young striker off of sentry duty is sleeping on an assembly line of auto seats at Fisher body plant No 3 in Flint, Jan 1937

Sheldon Dick/Library of Congress/LC-USF34-040030

Autoworkers’ houses in Flint rent for $25-$35 a month They are equipped with stoves but water is drawn from a commercial well, February 1937.

Sheldon Dick/Library of Congress/LC-USF34-040017

Child feeding calf on farm near Gibbs City, April 1937.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress/LC-USF34-010922

Children in Gibbs City, May 1937.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress/LC-USF34-010917

Detroit police officers remove sit-down strikers from the Yale and Towne manufacturing plant in March 1937.

Unknown/Library of Congress/LC-USZ62-106935

Head of UAW Women’s Auxiliary kitchen is set up in a restaurant opposite the Fisher body plant No 3 Strikers were fed here and food trucks were sent into the factory twice daily, February 1937.

Sheldon Dick/Library of Congress/LC-USF34-040018

Homes under construction as part of a Resettlement Administration project in Ironwood, Aug 1936.

Paul Carter/Library of Congress/LC-USF341-T-011255

John Nygren sits in front of his shack near Iron River, April 1937.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress/LC-USF341-T-010738

Members of a transient camp saw up old sleds for firewood near Hagerman Lake, April 1937.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress/LC-USF34-010809

Mrs William Sharrard and one of her children, her husband had been a farmer for years but struggled to make a living at it The family is on relief near Silk Lake, May 1937.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress/LC-USF34-010967

Resident of the abandoned mining town of Mansfield, May 1937.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress/LC-USF33-011183

Royal Oak, Michigan Portrait of three children in the neighborhood of Father Coughlin’s Shrine of the Little Flower, Dec 1939.

Arthur S. Siegel/Library of Congress/LC-USW3-016735

Really powerful images, huh? Really illustrates the struggles of the hard-working Michiganders of that time. Tell us, or rather share with us, any memories or photos that your family might have held on to over the years from that era.