Depression and Unemployment

When Herbert Hoover was elected President in November of 1928, Americans were generally optimistic. Many people believed that the prosperity of the 1920s, which felt rather like the upbeat 1990s, would continue indefinitely. The horrors of World War I were behind them, new conveniences such as cars, radios, and electrical appliances were becoming common, and new possibilities were opening up for women and small entrepreneurs.

The stock market crash of October 1929 therefore came as a surprise, and drastically curtailed a creative period of economic growth throughout the nation. In Wisconsin, people turned from sneaking bootleg beer into jazz halls... more...

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	The CCC tackles forest fires in Northern Wisconsin, 1934
	The Progressive Party is born in 1934
	The Sheboygan Press covers the strike in Kohler, 1934
	A farm family untouched by depression in 1933
	A miniature kit teaches mothers about safe homebirths, 1938
	A block-print wall hanging from the Milwaukee Handicraft Project
	Flour and feed sacks become a State Fair quilt in 1931
	A hand-made prom dress
	A Frank Lloyd Wright "dream house" made of paper, 1938
	Arts and crafts from the Milwaukee Handicraft Project, 1939
	A WPA guide to Wisconsin's edible mushrooms
	Annual summaries of Milwaukee industry, 1919-1929
	The Kohler Company celebrates industrial progress, 1934
	A look at Wisconsin industry on the eve of the Depression
	A report on unemployment relief in Northern Wisconsin, 1933
	A history and statistical summary of dairying, 1860-1931.
	Kenosha men and women recall the Great Depression
	The Wisconsin author of the Social Security Act appears before Congress.
	The federal government uses cartoons to explain Social Security.
	The first years of Social Security evaluated.
	The new Social Security Act is explained by the federal government.
	A short history of prison industries, 1852-2002
	A Guide to CCC Camps in Wisconsin, 1937
	How the Depression Affected Rural Wisconsin, 1936.
	Images of the planned community in Greendale, Wisconsin
	Wisconsin officials cope with unemployment during the 1930's
	W.P.A. interviewers collect stories, jokes and other Wisconsin folklore, 1936-1938
	Working-class women describe their jobs, 1938-1941.
	The Southport Beach House in Kenosha
	The WPA-funded Herbster Community Center
	The Fox Theater in Green Bay (1930)

Primary Sources Available Elsewhere

	Arthur Altmeyer, "Mr. Social Security," remembered by Wilbur Cohen.
	A conversation between Edwin Witte and Wilbur Cohen
	Why and how the 1935 Social Security bill was created.
	Wisconsin Blue Books
	The government explains why Social Security was needed.
	The autobiography of John R. Commons (1934)
	Documents relating to child welfare organizations
	Documents relating to high school life in Milwaukee during the Depression
	Scenes from Farm Security Administration offices in 1939

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