Template for Creating Pathfinders

Great Depression - 1929

This pathfinder guide is designed to help you find information in our library about topics related to the Great Depression starting in 1929 through It will include print and non-print sources available via databases and the Internet.

Books

Use the EHS online book catalog, Athena, to search for book in our library about the Great Depression. Find the purple ATHENA symbol under Applications once you log in.

Some of the subject headings to use are:

Depressions - 1929

Great Depression

New Deal

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano

United States - Economic conditions

United States - History

For personal narratives and primary sources, look under Great Depression - Sources

Online Databases

SIRS

We subscribe to SIRS (Social Issues Research Series) which has full-text articles on topics in the social sciences. Go to the Edgewood web page and click on Library. Go to Online Databases. Search under Great Depression or Business Depression. You will find periodical articles and links to related web sites if you click on the world globe.

Badgerlink

Choose the part of Badgerlink you want to use, e.g. Masterfile Elite or Academic Search Elite; put in your search term and find articles about your topic.

Specific Web Sites:

1. The 1930s in Print (1930s)

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/front.html

This site is part of the American Studies Group at the University of Virginia. Its purpose is to promote better understanding of events, people, places, and attitudes that helped shape American history in the 1930s.

2. The New Deal Network PRIMARY SOURCES

http://newdeal.feri.org Provides and excellent database of photographs, political cartoons, texts (in the form of speeches and letters), and other historic documents about the New Deal.

3. Voices from the Dust Bowl PRIMARY SOURCES

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html

Contains songs, photographs, and first-person accounts of migrant workers who left the Dust Bowl to work in California during the Great Depression.

4. The FDR Cartoon Archive (1932-1943) PRIMARY SOURCES

http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/fdr/FDRcartoons.html

This collection includes newspaper clippings of hundreds of political cartoons featuring Franklin Delano Roosevelt and issues involving his administrations from 1932 to 1943.

5. Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum PRIMARY SOURCES

http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/

Includes personal information about Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt and indexes to various collections of the president's papers.

6. POTUS (Presidents of the United States PRIMARY SOURCES

http://www.ipl.org/ref/POTUS Contains information about election results, cabinet members, presidential highlights, and other historical documents relation to FDR's presidency.

7. American Life Histories PRIMARY SOURCES

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html

Searchable by keyword and state, this massive site contains 2,900 first-person accounts and narratives of various Americans from an occupational or Great Depression perspective. The accounts are in the form of full-text documents and audio excerpts read by modern-day actors. The life stories of Americans from Almost every walk of life are represented.

8. Teenagers and the Great Depression PRIMARY SOURCES

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rails/

250,000 teenagers were living on the road in America at the height of the Great Depression. Special Features contains the stories of seven teenage hobos, hobo songs from the period, and the difficulties faced by black Americans.

9. Visions in the Dust: a Child’s Perspective of the Dust Bowl PRIMARY SOURCES

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/99/dust/intro.html

PRIMARY SOURCES

Primary source materials of the period found in the Library of Congress American Memory collections.

10. The Dust Bowl

http://www.humanities-interactive.org/texas/dustbowl/ PRIMARY SOURCES

An exhibit of documentary photographs from the Farm Security Administration with texts adapted from oral history interviews of the Dust Bowl survivors.

11. Appalachian Power PRIMARY SOURCES

http://www.appalachianpower.com/ PRIMARY SOURCES

Sites includes articles, oral histories, art and music of the Great Depression.

12. California Gold Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties (1930s) PRIMARY SOURCES

http://rs6.loc.gov/amhome.html This is one of the sites within the Library of Congress American Memory Project. It is a compilation of sound recordings, still-life photographs, drawings, correspondence, and research materials. They were collected from a group of European ethnic communities in Northern California which were studied as part of the New Deal Work Projects Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression. The search engine supports searches by keyword, subject index, ethnic gorup, performers, musical instruments, and audio title.

13. The Archive of Folk Culture

http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/archive.html This site provides links to other folk life - related Library of Congress collections and also contains full-text publications from the American Folk-Life Center.

14. Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/features/timeline/depwwii/depwar.html The Learning Page; The Great Depression and World War II (1929-1945)

(Use http://glossarist.com)

Teacher Resources

1. To Kill a Mockingbird: A Historical Perspective

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/98/mock/intro.html Learning Page

2. Figuring Somepin 'Bout the Great Depression

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/99/migrant/intro.html Learning Page

3. K-12 Lesson Plans: The Great Depression

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/calheritage/k12/depression_lesson.htm

4. Teaching with Documents Lesson Plans : NARA (National Archives and Records Administration)

FDR First Inaugural Address, declaring "war" on the Great Depression

http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/fdr_inaugural_address/fdr_inaugural_address.html

5. Teaching with Documents Lesson Plans: NARA (National Archives and Records Administration)

http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/teaching_with_documents.html

6. The Great Depression and the Arts Lesson Plans: a unit of study for grades 8 - 12

http://newdeal.feri.org/nchs/about.htm

Image Resources:

Badgerlink When searching in Badgerlink, pick the database you want to search in, e.g. Masterfile Elite, and click on the green button on top which says "Images." Put in the term "Great Depression" and you will find photos from this period of history.

SIRS (Social Issues Resources Series) Search under your topic, e.g. "Great Depression" and find the articles. Any article that shows a camera symbol has pictures related to your topic.

Experts/Scholars: Many of you may be able to learn a lot about the Depression era by interviewing your grandparents.

Video Resources: You can take advantage of our Interlibrary Loan service by checking Madison Public Library's online catalog under videos. Simply put in the word "Depressions" when searching under the Format Video category and you will find a number of videos related to the Depression era.

Keywords/Phrases/Subject Headings:

Keep in mind the following words when searching Badgerlink and SIRS:

"Great Depression"

Depressions

United States and Economic conditions (Advanced Searches)

Specific people: for example, Roosevelt, Franklin Delano