The Great Depression in San Francisco (Photos)

Homeless: The photo above shows two men sleeping on Howard Street
in San Francisco, California in February 1937.

A Distant Mirror

(London Daily Mail)  -  The Great Depression was one of America's darkest chapters in history to date, with millions of people suffering all over the country.

Thousands of lives were upended due to the 1929 stock market crash that caused bank investments to be cutoff. Many families who had stable lives became migrant workers as unemployment reached a peak of 25 percent.

Many workers were able to get jobs on projects with the federal Works Progress Administration or started farming with help from the Farm Security Administration (FSA). 

Between 1935 and 1944, the federal government sent some of the most influential photographers of the day across the country to document the success of their programs across the country.

Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans, John Collier, Dorothea Lange and others captured thousands of haunting images portraying The Great Depression. 

In particular, Lange became well-known for her work documenting the effects of the Depression in San Francisco, California for the FSA.

The photos she took in the 1930s and 1940s provide a snapshot of how people were suffering during that time period, and also highlight how some conditions have not changed for some in San Francisco.

A Yale University project called Photogrammar has organized the collection of more than 170,000 photos that were curated by the Library of Congress.  

Read More . . . .

The image above shows a mass meeting of Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers parading up Market Street in San Francisco, California in February 1939.

The photo above shows thousands of people listening to speeches at a mass meeting of Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers protesting the congressional cut of relief appropriations in San Francisco, California in February 1939.

Demonstration: The photo above from February 1939 shows the Worker's Alliance and the Works Progress Administration holding simultaneous demonstrations in front of city hall in San Francisco, California.

Unemployed: The photo above shows people standing on Howard Street in San Francisco, California. At the time, it was known as 'Skid Row,' the district of the unemployed in February 1937.

The photo above captured by Dorothea Lange in April 1939 shows a trio playing instruments in the Salvation Army area of San Francisco, California.

Dance the night away: The photo above captured by John Collier in December 1941 shows people dancing at the United Service Organizations (USO) servicemen's club in the Civic Center in San Francisco, California.

The photo above shows Italian fishermen gathered on Fisherman's Wharf, on December 8, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Hungry: The photo above captured by Dorothea Lange shows a man who bummed breakfast from a restaurant to give to his friend in the neighborhood where the Salvation Army operated in April 1939 in San Francisco, California.