From farms to factories, these colorized Great Depression pictures help reveal what American history's worst economic catastrophe was like for those who lived through it.
Flood victims line up for Red Cross relief in Kentucky. 1937.Margaret Bourke-White; Ryan Stennes A destitute family in the Ozark Mountains area of Arkansas. 1935.Ben Shahn/Farm Security Administration/New York Public Library; Ryan Stennes Children of a migrant fruit worker in Berrien County, Mich. July 1940.John Vachon/Farm Security Administration/New York Public Library; Ryan Stennes A cotton sharecropper with his family at their home in Hale County, Ala. 1935.Walker Evans/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes A family of migrant workers fleeing from the drought in Oklahoma camp by the roadside in Blythe, Calif. 1936.Dorothea Lange/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes Cotton pickers in Arkansas. 1935.Ben Shahn/Library of Congress; Ryan Stennes Thirty-two-year-old Florence Owens Thompson with three of her seven children at a pea pickers' camp in Nipomo, Calif. March 1936.Dorothea Lange/Farm Security Administration/Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes An unemployed man holds a sign voicing his frustrations. Circa early 1930s.General Photographic Agency/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes Unemployed men gather outside a Chicago soup kitchen owned by Al Capone. 1931.National Archives and Records Administration; Ryan Stennes The children of a migrant fruit worker in Berrien County, Mich. July 1940.John Vachon/Farm Security Administration/New York Public Library; Ryan Stennes An unemployed man lies down on the New York docks. Circa 1935.Lewis Hine/National Archives and Records Administration/Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes Three girls model various Dust Bowl masks to be worn in areas where the amount of dust in the air causes breathing difficulties. 1935.Bert Garai/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes The young son of a farmer walks amid the dust in Cimarron County, Okla. April 1936.Arthur Rothstein/Farm security Administration via Library of Congress; Ryan Stennes Men looking for work hold up signs. Location and date unspecified.Ryan Stennes Shanty town dwellings sit in New York's Central Park at the height of the Great Depression. 1933.Bettmann/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes Convicts at work at Reed Camp, S.C.Alan Lomax/Library of Congress; Ryan Stennes Children from Oklahoma staying in a migratory camp in California. 1936.Dorothea Lange/Farm Security Administration via Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes A large group of people wait on a food line in New York City. 1932.National Archives and Records Administration/Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes The children of a migrant family living in a trailer in the middle of a field south of Chandler, Ariz. Nov. 1940.Dorothea Lange/United States Department of Agriculture/National Archives and Records Administration/Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes An old woman receives her Thanksgiving ration of food as other hungry people wait in line for the same. New York City. 1930. Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes Police arrest two men during the Harlem riots of 1935.Bettmann Archive; Ryan Stennes A poor mother stands with her two children in Oklahoma. 1936.Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes An immigrant family on Ellis Island looks out across New York Harbor at the Statue of Liberty. Circa 1930s.FPG/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes Farm machinery buried by a dust storm near a barn lot in Dallas, S.D. May 1936.United States Department of Agriculture via Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes A young boy takes a break from digging for coal on the snowy roadside in Scott's Run, W.Va. The photographer noted that the child was barefoot and seemed to be used to it. Circa 1937.Wikimedia Commons; Ryan Stennes Two boys play golf on a homemade course consisting of old buckets. 1930.Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes A group of children at the window of a shack. Location unspecified. Circa 1939.FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes A crowd salutes the camera, holding up their drinks at a newly-opened bar just after the repeal of Prohibition. Location and date unspecified. 1933.Flickr; Ryan Stennes The first legal case of beer arrives at the White House following the repeal of Prohibition. Washington, D.C. April 1933.New York Times Co./Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes A young boy stands in the middle of the Dust Bowl. Circa 1935.FSA/Getty Images; Ryan Stennes
30 Great Depression Pictures Brought To Life In Stunning Color View GalleryThe Great Depression was the single most catastrophic economic nosedive the United States has ever seen. When the stock market crashed in Oct. 1929, Wall Street panicked and the entire country quickly fell into a depression that lasted for years as industrial output plummeted and unemployment surged.
By 1933, the U.S. economy was at a nadir never seen before in the country's history as 15 million Americans had lost their jobs and almost half of the banks had failed entirely. Americans across the country suddenly found themselves struggling desperately to merely survive.
The Prelude To The Crash
Today, historical hindsight allows us to see that this period of economic downturn had been looming over the country throughout the 1920s. America was booming during that decade, with the country's total wealth more than doubling between 1920 and 1929.
But amid the glitz and optimism of "The Roaring Twenties," the Gatsby era, investors were moving money around with reckless abandon. Everyone who was even remotely liquid began to invest, with this rapid expansion reaching unprecedented heights in 1929 — at which point the consequences came crashing down.
With stocks extremely overvalued, production and unemployment on a downturn, and an agricultural drought hampering the nation's food prices, a recession settled in. By summer, consumers began spending less and less, and with unsold products filling up shelves, production came to a halt. On Oct. 24 — "Black Thursday" — a record 12.9 million shares were traded, and the market crashed.
The Depression Takes Hold And Reform Begins
The year after the crash, 4 million Americans actively looking for work but were simply unable to find any. Within another year, that figure had turned to six million. Industrial production was slashed in half — with bread lines and soup kitchens beginning to pop up across the country in increasing numbers.
President Hoover's administration was eager to provide failing banks with the funding necessary to get back on their feet. Those banks would, in turn, lend that money to businesses and subsequently kickstart the economy.
Hoover disagreed with the idea of federal bailouts, however, and the nation continued to suffer. Soon, there were more than 15 million unemployed Americans — more than 20 percent of the nation's population in 1932 — and many of them helped elect Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in hopes that the country could change course. He famously assuaged the country's collective anxieties through his radio addresses known as "fireside chats" and assured citizens that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Furthermore, Roosevelt soon instated a "bank holiday" that lasted four days. The purpose was clear: Close all banks, let Congress legislate thorough financial reform, and only reopen banks who passed muster. He then helped create the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to protect the public's deposits in the event of failing banks, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the market.
Economic Upturn And The End Of The Great Depression
Roosevelt's slate of New Deal programs focused on supporting economic growth and providing safety nets for a populous in dire need of support. The Works Progress Administration, for instance, was created as a permanent jobs program in the public works sector and employed 8.5 million Americans from 1935 to 1943.
The Social Security Act was passed in 1935, giving citizens economic disability, pension, and unemployment benefits for the first time in American history. The country was slowly, but surely, on the road to recovery — with around nine percent growth each year from 1933 to 1936.
And with the subsequent ramp-up to U.S. involvement in World War II, industrial production and investments in military infrastructure only bolstered the U.S. economy. Defense manufacturing spiked, the private sector began to blossom, and factories were running at full steam. By 1939, the Great Depression had finally come to an end.
Within just a decade, the United States will mark the 100th anniversary of the beginning of this historic economic downturn. Though this particular period is long gone now, with generations having passed since then — the Great Depression was not something out of an old-timey, black-and-white photo album of yesteryear for those who lived through it.
For those who lived through it, the devastation was a very real fact of life day in and day out. Fortunately, the U.S. Farm Security Administration, among other agencies and private-sector professionals, documented this era in photos so that we're now left with a vast collection of powerful Great Depression pictures.
And now, we've colorized some of those Great Depression pictures to provide a look at this time often only remembered in black and white.
From factory workers and farmers to families living in squalor and children growing up during the darkest hour of America's economy — these colorized Great Depression pictures serve as vivid reminders of those who came before us, their immense financial hardships, and their resilient ability to overcome them.
Next, see more Great Depression pictures gathered in the videos below:
Great Depression pictures gathered by the Farm Security Administration between 1939 and 1943.After you've taken a look at the colorized Great Depression pictures above, learn about the Great Depression's impact on New York City. Then, take a look at some of the most incredible color photographs of World War II.
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