The stock market crash on October 29, 1929 -- known as Black Tuesday -- was the "worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world." It spread from the United States to national economies across the globe. It ended a decade known for its high-spirited free-spending, called the Roaring 20s, and began almost 10 years of financial desperation that would touch nearly every citizen of the United States. The Great Depression caused bank closures and business failures and by its end, saw "more than 15 million Americans (one-quarter of the workforce)" unemployed. Herbert Hoover, president at the time, did not acknowledge the depth of the crisis and assumed that the American characteristics of individualism and self reliance would quickly bring the nation out of the disaster without a need for federal intervention. But, layoffs and financial desperation at the personal level were growing: "an empty pocket turned inside out was called a 'Hoover flag' [and] the decrepit shanty towns springing up around the country were called 'Hoovervilles'." Three years into the financial crisis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, running on a platform of federal recovery programs called the "New Deal," easily took the presidential election of 1932.

I would get primary sources regarding the 1939 World's Fair in New York such as this one of FDR at the opening and I would also incorporate this photo of our late U.S. Senator from WV - Jennings Randolph - who was to be presented with a (funny) award at the World's Fair. I would want to find more images of Government officials at the World's Fair - including foreign leaders.  And then I would add posters and different images I could find that would tell the story of what was at the 1939 World's Fair.  Students would be divided into groups with different images and documents to help determine/piece together why it was important - and what countries were involved.  We might look at the political, social and economic benefits of the World Fair.

This site presents thousands of images of items selected from the Federal Theatre Project, established during the first term of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt under the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Featured here are stage and costume designs, still photographs, posters, scripts and administrative documents.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was one of the most popular of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs. The CCC’s mission was to conserve the natural resources of the United States while providing relief to the poor and encouraging the recovery of the economy. The program provided employment to enrolllees and financial support to their families during the Great Depression, while developing much needed conservation and infrastructure projects for a country that had been devastated by over logging and farming practices that contributed to soil erosion. Known as "Roosevelt's Tree Army," the program improved national and state parks, prevented erosion, controlled flooding, and assisted with natural disaster recovery. The unemployment rate during the Great Depression was estimated at twenty-five percent, which left a generation of young men without employment or opportunities. During its operation from 1933 to 1938, the CCC employed close to three million previously unemployed young men, although it disproportionately assisted whites. This exhibition tells the stories of the CCC’s administration and controversial policies, the men who joined, and the contributions its projects made to the history of conservation in the United States. This exhibition was created as part of the DPLA's Public Library Partnerships Project by collaborators from Mountain West Digital Library. Exhibition organizer: Anna Neatrour.

What is mercantilism? How did economics contribute to rising tensions between the North and the South in the years before the Civil War? What caused the Great Depression? In this video course designed specifically to help students study for the AP US History exam and SAT Subject Test, Professor Brian Domitrovich of Sam Houston State University explains key events in US economic history and surveys different (and sometimes opposing) viewpoints on each event.

Students will be able to analyze historical images and use that analysis to organize them into the appropriate timeline of events.