The Great Depression

This abandoned farm in rural Oklahoma was one of thousands left deserted due to the drought and dust storms of the 1930s. Tenant farmers and sharecroppers were hit the hardest. (National Archives)

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of FDR's favorite New Deal programs. Known as the "tree army," the CCC hired young men to work on conservation projects from planting trees to creating hiking trails in national parks. (U.S. Forest Service)

These children are pictured with a sign that reads "Hoover's Poor Farm These children are pictured with a sign that reads "Hoover's Poor Farm." Hoover was blamed for everything that went wrong after the 1929 crash. (Library of Congress)

The Great Depression devastated millions who lost their jobs and with them the means to provide food and shelter for themselves and their families. Breadlines stretched as far as the eye could see as impoverished workers lined up in the hope of obtaining some meager rations for their hungry families. (Library of Congress)

Roy Stryker, director of the Farm Security Administration's (FSA) resettlement program, wanted photographs to convince the public that rural Americans faced difficulties but with help were capable of overcoming those troubles."Migrant Mother," by Dorothea Lange, is one of the best-known photographs commissioned by the FSA during the 1930s. (Library of Congress)

Eleanor Roosevelt visited many sites in her efforts to bring the New Deal to forgotten and dispossessed Americans. She is shown here visiting an African American nursery school run by the WPA in Des Moines, Iowa.

The prevailing belief during Roosevelt's presidency was that a physical handicap was an indication of a deeper flaw, perhaps mental. To hide his paralysis when he appeared in public, Roosevelt concealed his heavy braces and leaned on the strong arm of a companion--usually one of his sons. (FDR Library)

During the 1930s, drought conditions in the West and Midwest aggravated the economic calamity for millions of rural Americans. Here a father and his son struggle through a dust storm in Oklahoma in 1936. (Library of Congress)