Dust bowl

It was the biggest setback to the global economy since the dawn of the modern industrial age. But did the world’s reaction worsen the effects of the 1929 Crash? And have we learned from those mistakes?

Striking images taken by photographer Dorothea Lange show families living in tents and shacks as they wait to be returned to Oklahoma after arid storms decimated their prairie homeland.

Imagine soil so dry that plants disappear and dirt blows past your door like sand. That’s what really happened during the Dust Bowl. Of all the droughts that have occurred in the United States, the drought events of the 1930s are widely considered to be the “drought of record” for the nation. Learn more about this period and its impacts.

Explore 10 surprising facts about America's epic drought disaster—the Dust Bowl.

Explore the artists and artworks of our time at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

The project for the Historical Sew Fortnightly Challenge this time was “Peasants & Pioneers.” From the event page on Facebook: “As wonderful as making pretty, pretty princess …

Featured collections , Voyage to Inner Space

Vintage photographs available as fine-art prints or digital stock images

Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull on the set