Depression-Era Transients

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Decade: 
1930s

Depression-Era Transients

In the 1930s, the Great Depression forced many people to become transients, traveling the country in search of work (Sheridan, 1995). Many of these people found themselves in Arizona. Federal, state, and private organizations sought to assist these people by providing food, shelter, and medical care, a task that frequently proved overwhelming.

Read About It

Use the document analysis sheet and the photograph analysis sheet to uncover clues about the people that created the documents.

Understand It

  1. What caused people to become transients?
  2. Who created the documents linked above? What did they think of transients? Whose opinion about transients is not represented in these documents?
  3. If you had lived during the Great Depression, what would you have done to help the transients, and why?

Explore More

Visit the websites below to learn more. Based on this new information, have your answers to the questions above changed?

For Students

For Teachers

Resources

Find a document in the Arizona State Library catalog that would be a good addition to this topic? Have a suggestion for another Arizona Research Topic? Contact us.