The Great Depression, which took place during the years 1929-1939, began shortly after the stock market crash of October 1929. In 1933, as many as 15 million Americans were unemployed and nearly half of the United States’ banks had failed. During this horrible time in history, relief and reform measures were put into place by President Roosevelt. Unfortunately, the economy didn’t fully turn around until after 1939, when World War II began.
Listed below are 20 interesting photos that were captured in Alabama during the Great Depression. These photos show what life was truly like back then.
- A group of coal miners, Birmingham - 1937.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- Children of a resettlement farmer, Skyline Farms - 1935.
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
- The wife and child of an Alabama sharecropper, Walker County - 1937.
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
- Main Street, Selma - 1935.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- A barber shop window, Birmingham - 1937.
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
- Conducting school in the Church, Gees Bend - 1937.
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
- Middle class houses, Birmingham - 1936.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- An Alabama plow girl, Eutaw - 1936.
Dorothea Lange/Photogrammar
- Sale signs on a department store, Montgomery - 1939.
Marion Post Wolcott/Photogrammar
- A house with an unusual staircase, Mobile - 1938.
Russell Lee/Photogrammar
- Front of Mixson’s Hardware, Enterprise - 1939.
Marion Post Wolcott/Photogrammar
- Alabama tenant farmer and children. Family labor in cotton, Anniston - 1936.
Dorothea Lange/Photogrammar
- McCollum Grocery Company, Greensboro - 1935.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- A converted antebellum residence into Tuscaloosa Wrecking Company and Auto Parts, Tuscaloosa - 1935.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- Frank Tengle Family (sharecroppers), Hale County - 1936.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- Downtown Greensboro - 1936.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- General store interior, Moundville - 1936.
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
- A street in Brookside, the small mining town where many of the Gardendale homesteaders formerly lived - 1937.
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
- A window in a sharecropper’s cabin, Walker County - 1937.
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
- A mother washing clothes in a migrant camp, Birmingham - 1937.
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
What do you think of these photos? Feel free to share your thoughts below!
Walker Evans/Photogrammar
Arthur Rothstein/Photogrammar
Dorothea Lange/Photogrammar
Marion Post Wolcott/Photogrammar
Russell Lee/Photogrammar
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