Worth a Thousand Words: Depression-Era Photographs
Introduction
Throughout the Great Depression, the federal
government employed photographers to document the need for New
Deal programs and the extent of these programs' successes. Today,
through the Internet, students can view this record of an era
and see for themselves how Americans faced the challenge of
those testing times.
Learning Objectives
To gain insight into New Deal programs
and the experience of Depression-era Americans; to recognize
the distinction between observation and inference when drawing
information from documentary photographs; to recognize some
ways the photographer can influence interpretation of documentary
photographs; to gain experience in critical thinking about
media.
1 Begin
by introducing students to the Works Progress Administration
(WPA) and its mission during the Great Depression. Established
in 1935 as part of the New Deal, the WPA hired unemployed
individuals for public works projects ranging from ditch-digging
to producing plays. Though sometimes attacked as a "make work"
program, the WPA is now credited with helping to stimulate
recovery from the Depression by pouring billions of dollars
into the national economy in the form of consumer purchasing
power.
2
The "Image
Library" of the New
Deal Network includes documentary photographs of many
WPA projects. From the "Image
Library" index page, click on "Photo Series" under the
"Miscellaneous" heading, then click "WPA Photoessays" to find
a series of pictures recording a day in the life of "Lucille
Normand, WPA Seamstress," taken in Chicago in 1940. As
preparation for analyzing these photographs, have students
fold a sheet of loose-leaf paper in half lengthwise and write
"Observations" at the top of one column, "Inferences" at the
top of the other. Explain that as they study each photograph,
they will record details they can see under "Observations"
and their interpretations under "Inferences."
3 Guide
students through this process by analyzing the first picture
in the series as a class. (The first picture is titled "Getting
Ready to Go to Work." The photos in this series are listed
in a misleading order on the website, with the last two, showing
after-work scenes, mistakenly listed first.) Encourage students
to gather as much information as they can from the photograph
itself, while you hide the caption. Have them make observations
and inferences about the women and children, their clothing,
the room they are in, what they are doing, etc. Discuss how
they might confirm their inferences about the picture (e.g.,
interview the people photographed or the photographer, research
WPA records to locate sources of information). Then reveal
the caption and discuss the additional information it provides.
How does the caption work with the image to help give full
meaning to the picture? Have students suggest captions that
would evoke different meanings from the picture to illustrate
how captions and images relate to one another.
4 Have students work in research teams
to analyze the remaining photographs in this series. Then
compare notes in a class discussion. What are the students'
observations about Lucille Normand's everyday life? What inferences
have they drawn from these observations? How does their view
of her life compare with that of the photographer, as expressed
in the photo captions? Talk about the photographer's scenes.
Explore in class discussion the extent to which these photographs
document the life of a WPA worker and the extent to which
they are advertisements for the work of the WPA.
5
Have students return to their research
teams to brainstorm questions they would like to ask Lucille
Normand and her family in an interview. For example, they
might ask Lucille about her work, her family, her community,
her past, her hopes for the future - anything that would provide
more insight into her life. Have each group also make a list
of images they would like to add to this series, in order
to give a more complete picture of "Lucille Normand, WPA Seamstress."
Have students share these ideas in class, and briefly discuss
what is left out of this documentary history of a day in the
life of one person living through the Great Depression.
6
Conclude by having each student produce
either an imaginary interview with Lucille Normand and her
family or an imaginary journal collecting Lucille's reflections
on the day she was photographed. Encourage students to build
on their observations and inferences as they try to recreate
Lucille Normand's life in this way. If possible, have students
use the WPA photos to illustrate their work, writing new captions
for each image if they wish.
Extending the Lesson
The New
Deal Network also offers an excellent lesson plan for
study of Depression-era photographs of teenagers: click "Classroom
Activities" on the site's homepage, then follow the "Lesson
Plans" link to Stanlee Brimberg's "Rondal
Partridge, NYA Photographer," upon which this lesson is
partly based. Finally, any study of the Depression era can
be enhanced by exploring the Federal Writers Project interviews
available in the "American
Life Histories" collection at the
American Memory website.
Standards Alignment
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