Query From Steve Sweitzer ssweitze@ycp.edu 20 Nov 1997
I am currently working on a paper that is trying to asses the "fictionality" of John Steinbeck's female characters. However, I have not been able to find any research material specifically concerning women in the Great Depression. Is there such material and if so, where can I go to find it? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated and I thank you in advance for it.
Responses:
During the depression the US Farm Security Administration sent out about a dozen photographers to take pictures of the reality of the depression. Many of these photos contain images of women and children. There are about 130,000 photos on file at the Library of Congress. Hope that helps.
See also the WPA files at the National Archives
See also LOC's on-line collection of WPA interviews: http://rs6.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpahome.html
Check LaFollette Committee (gov't commission) for their report
Consider cross-posting this query with the new New Deal listserv: NewDeal@uic.edu
Other Responses:
Agee and Walker _Let Us Now Praise Famous Men_
Donohue, Agnes McNeill, Ed., _Casebook on the Grapes of Wrath_ (Crowell, 1968) Esp. Martin Schockley's "The Reception of the Grapes of Wrath in Oklahoma"
Dubofsky, Melvin & Stephen Burwood, Eds. _Women and Minorities During the Great Depression_
Flynt, Wayne _Poor But Proud_
Hagood, Margaret _Mothers of the South_
Hapke, Laura _Daughters of the Great Depression: Women, Work, and Fiction in the American 1930s_(Athens: U of Georgia Press, 1995).
McWilliams, Carey _Factory in the Fields_
Ware, Susan _Holding Their Own: American Women in the 1930s_(1982)
Westin, Jean Eddy _Making Do: How Women Survived the 30s_(1976)
Wolfe, Margaret Ripley _Daughters of Canaan_ -