| | TEXAS IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION
The image of Texas that comes to mind during the Great Depression is that of the Dust Bowl. Perhaps the best known images from that period are those of the Dust Bowl. But there were other, less dramatic scenes yet critical if you were the one affected. "Man Sitting on a Tree Stump" (c.1930) illustrates the problem of unemployment, idleness, depression and the breakup of the family unit as unintended consequences of the economic conditions. See our 1930s collection for more images.
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| | | To the untrained eye this scene may look like the beginning of an ordinary construction project. The key is to do the research in order to identify the significance of an image. The stake in the foreground applies to the construction work going on. If you look closely you will see homes with similar stakes in the background. What you are looking at is the federal Subsistence Homestead Division's project in Beaumont, Texas givng land to the destitute in exchange for a promise by the owner to stay on the land and make it productive. "Subsistence Homestead Division" (1934). A New Deal project perhaps not that well known outside rural areas.
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