1. Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters from Children of the Great Depression Leadership in American History Book Club March 5, 2008 The New-York Historical Society Kim Sekel

2. Fashion of the 1930s Many of the letters children sent to Mrs. Roosevelt begged her for money for clothing. The next several slides include images of fashion from the 1930s, drawn from various catalogs of the time. Some websites to visit to learn about fashion in history include: – http://www.vintageblues.com/history3.htm http://www.vintageblues.com/history3.htm – http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm – http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/1930links.htm http://www.costumes.org/history/100pages/1930links.htm

3. Dresses from a catalog, Dated 1933

4. Fashion Magazine, 1932

5. Sears Catalog, Ladies Loungewear

6. Ladies Dresses, Sears Catalog, 1934

7. Children’s Clothes, Sears Catalog, 1934

8. Teen clothing, much like some of the letter writers requested. Sears, 1934

9. Ladies Shoes, Sears, 1934

10. Stockings (pre-nylon) Sears, 1934

11. Athletic Shoes, Sears, 1934

12. Men’s Shoes, Sears, 1934

13. Men’s Suits, Sears, 1934

14. Men’s Shoes, Sears, 1935

15. Sears, 1938

16. The “Many-Way Dress,” which offered a way to save money, Sears, 1938

17. Economics of the Great Depression Prices during the Great Depression seem deceptively low to modern students. For example, the dress advertisement on page 95 offers graduation outfits for a mere $5.95. Today, that outfit costs $93.73. Source: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl

18. Price Comparisons—Then and Now Page Number 4652120121 Original Price (date) $40/month salary (1934) $1.98 for a dress, purchased in 1936 $1400 tuition loan (1934) $15,000 dishes for White House (1934) 2008 equivalent price $630.09$30.07$22,053.13$236,283.58

19. What the world looked like The next several slides are pictures taken during the Great Depression. Most of them are taken from memory.loc.gov.

20. An abandoned hotel construction project in Florida. During the boom of the 1920s, several construction projects were begun (including the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings), but many were abandoned in the 1930s as financing dried up.

21. A family in a Hooverville in Ohio. Hoovervilles were so named because many people blamed Herbert Hoover for the Great Depression, and believed that he had not done enough to alleviate the suffering caused by the Depression.

22. Children in an Ohio Hooverville

23. Many families lost their homes as banks called in mortgages that the families could not afford to pay off. This family took to the roads, living out of their car.

24. Another family forced to live out of its car.

25. As unemployment skyrocketed, the jobless began to rely on soup kitchens and other charitable organizations. This food line proves that demand for such services was high.

26. Those families who lost their homes struggled to find any shelter they could, such as this shanty in Ohio.