Traveling Dusty Highways with Woody Guthrie The Depression Years: Traveling Dusty Highways with Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie: Early Years 1912 – born in Okemah, Oklahoma to Charles and Nora Guthrie 1919 – sister, Clara, dies in a fire 1927 – mother is hospitalized at Central State Hospital for the Insane in Normal, Oklahoma; father moves to Pampa, Texas leaving Woody on his own

Boom to Bust: 1929 - 1935

America: Institutions Fail 1929 – stock market crashes; Great Depression begins 1930 – 3.2 million people unemployed; 6,000 people sell apples on the streets of New York 1932 – Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected president; drought begins in the Midwestern US 1932 – 1933 – hundreds of banks fail; unemployment rate rises to 25% 1934 – three-day dust storm moves 350 million tons of dirt from the western US to the east

Woody Guthrie: Life on the Road 1929 – Nora Guthrie dies; Woody moves to Pampa, Texas to join his father 1932 – Woody joins a musical group, The Corncob Trio 1935 – Woody composes his first songbook; begins to write Dust Bowl ballads

The Dust Bowl: 1935 - 1940

America: Homelessness Leads to Hopelessness 1935 – Great Dust Storm strikes the Great Plains; Dust Bowl migration starts as “Okies” move west to California 1937 – laborers strike for better working conditions in various US cities 1940 – 14% of US workers are unemployed

Woody Guthrie: Songs for the People 1937 – moved to Los Angeles, CA; had a radio show on KFVD 1938 – wrote about living conditions in migrant work camps 1939 – sang at migrant work camps 1940 – recorded Dust Bowl Ballads on Victor Records; recorded for the Library of Congress; composed first version of “This Land is your Land”

The New Deal: 1933 - 1937

America: Federal Government Steps In 1933 – 1935 - CCC, CWA, WPA created by Congress giving jobs to millions; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation created to protect bank deposits 1935 – Social Security established 1939-1941 – manufacturing increases 50% as the nation prepares for World War II 1940 – FDR elected to third term as president

Woody Guthrie: From Radio to Recordings 1941 – joins the Almanac Singers; composes songs about the Grand Coulee Dam 1943 - Publishes Bound for Glory; joins the Merchant Marine 1952 – diagnosed with Huntington’s disease 1967 – dies in Queens, New York

Bibliography Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [LC-USZ62-120588] Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [LC-USF33-021002-M4 DLC] Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [LC-USF34-018262-C DLC] Judd, Nathan. “The Answer to the Greenback Dollar.” 1940. The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, Library of Congress, American Folklife Collection, (April 2003). Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection, [LC-USW3-016663-E DLC]