The Great Depression in the United States officially started in 1929 and lasted for more than a decade. As a result of the economic downturn, many people not only lost their jobs, but also their homes. As a result, many communities—shanty towns—composed of shacks made from scrap lumber and metal emerged in many areas of Washington State. These communities were often called Hoovervilles in honor of the U.S. President.
At the beginning of the Depression, the federal government refused to offer any relief to those who were suffering. President Hoover explained:
“It is not the function of government to relieve individuals of their responsibilities to their neighbors.”
This continues to be, of course, one of the guiding principles of today’s Republican conservatives.
During the Great Depression, industrial production fell by 50% and by 1933, about 15 million people (perhaps as much as one-third of the workforce) were out of work. In his book A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn writes:
“There were millions of tons of food around, but it was not profitable to transport it, to sell it. Warehouses were full of clothing, but people could not afford it. There were lots of houses, but they stayed empty because people couldn’t pay rent, had been evicted, and now lived in shacks in quickly formed ‘Hoovervilles’ built on garbage dumps.”
Industrialists, such as Henry Ford, blamed the Great Depression on American workers and their lack of desire to work.
The Washington State Historical Museum in Tacoma has some displays which show the Great Depression.
According to one display:
“The Pacific Northwest has been hit hard. Its major industries are extractive—financed by eastern or European capital. The resources taken from the land and waters of Washington are sold outside the region. When the source of money runs dry, mills and factories close. When buyers are lacking, fruit rots and wheat is not worth harvesting.”
Sociologist Donald Roy lived in one of Seattle’s three Hoovervilles in 1934. Unlike the tent cities that sprang up during the Great Recession of 2008, Roy found that Hooverville residents were primarily male and none were children.
Artist of the Down and Out
According to the display:
“Ronald Debs Ginther was a cook by trade and a Wobbly by conviction. During the Depression, working in the basement of his Seattle home, Ginther began to paint, usually from memory, scenes he had witnessed. These paintings, made with India ink and watercolor on pieces of red cardboard are among the most vivid and realistic records of Seattle’s bad times that exist.”
Ginther would later say:
“Some people say I overdone them, but it was worse than my pictures depict. These sketches are not near the truth.”
WPA
Under the Roosevelt administration a number of projects were authorized which put people back to work and improved local communities. One of these was the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Three-quarters of a century later, people throughout Washington, and other states, still enjoy improvements put in by the WPA workers.
According to the display:
“During the economic hard times known as the Great Depression, the federal government hired unemployed people, including artists, and paid them to continue working within their profession. Some artists were employed by museums to create visual aids, like this diorama.”
Museums 101
Museums 101 is a series of photo tours of museum exhibits. More from this series:
Museums 101: The Timber Industry (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Railroad (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Country School (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Manifest Destiny in the High Desert (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Southern California Mining (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Electrification (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Dalles Chinatown (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Swan River Tavern (Photo Diary)