Tag: soundcite

Dustbowl Soundcite

When thinking about the Dust Bowl or Great Depression my mind always goes to the iconic 1936 photo taken by Dorothea Lange titled Migrant Mother. This photo depicts a middle-aged mother and her young children, all dressed in rags, the mother with a look in her eyes that makes you feel her pain and worry. I had always known what this photo looked like, but it wasn’t until recently that I learned the story behind it.            

Like many others during this time, this mother of seven was migrating west from her home in Oklahoma where the dust bowl had made life almost impossible. She and so many others traveled to California in hopes of finding a better life. These people were nicknamed “Okies” and when they arrived in California were probably saddened to find that it was not the land, they thought it would be. The Great Depression had taken its toll their too and jobs were not as abundant as they had originally thought.

This made me wonder how the Okie’s much have felt before and after this journey. I wondered if they ever regretting leaving the great plains. I found my answer in the Library of Congress’s Collection of Voices from the Dust Bowl in a two-part interview with a man named Tom Higginbotham. Higginbotham was also an Okie who spoke about his experience both in Oklahoma and California. He spoke about how he left Oklahoma because he didn’t want his family dying of starvation like his livestock. He didn’t exactly want to leave his land but he listen. It seems like Higginbotham and so many others saw life in California as hard but nowhere near as bad as living on the dust covered plains.

My research brought me to think that although life didn’t get much easier the Okies were incredibly grateful for the opportunities they were given in California. Higginbotham himself had said listen. Life was rough in Oklahoma and it wasn’t too much better in California, but these people were so appreciative of the government FSA camps. They were grateful for the opportunity to work hard and try to make life even a little better for their families.

Citations:

1.  Dana Cochran et al., “The Great Depression,” Matthew Downs, ed., in The American Yawp, eds. Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2018).

2. “The Migrant Experience”, Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/collections/todd-and-sonkin-migrant-workers-from-1940-to-1941/articles-and-essays/the-migrant-experience/

3. “Interview about life in Oklahoma and how and why he came to California part 1 of 2”, Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000198/.

4. “Interview about life in Oklahoma and how and why he came to California part 2 of 2”,Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/toddbib000199/.

Skill 7, Blog 9: Voices From the Dust Bowl

I chose to look into the the Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker collection, which was compiled between the years 1940-1941 to document the daily life and culture of Farm Security Administration migrant work camp residents in California

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. While going through the collections audio recordings, it struck me that so many of the migrants they interviewed were from far off. At the end of her rendition of “The Old Apple Tree in the Orchard

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,” Ruth Elliot is asked listen. Others like her came all the way from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and other regions in the southern and midwestern United States in order to flee the Dust Bowl, and they brought elements of their regional culture with them. At the time of this project, there was an increase of interest in American folklife, which drove many of the projects that were created by FDR. In 1935, Roosevelt budgeted over $27 million dollars for the purpose of “rediscovering and defining American culture” through his federal work projects, and that work continues in this initiative3. Furthermore, there was a public desire for the collection of folk culture, such as folk music, as it became a patriotic rallying point for Americans, and being government sanctioned, was able to flourish

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Ruth’s song listen is a prime example of the types of folklore sought after by federal archivists at this time. Narrated by a girl reminiscing about an apple tree, which her father planted. When he takes a local girl out for a jamboree

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, and brings her home in the morning, listen. The neighbors found him there and hanged him to death, and so ends the folk song. The light melody of the song is playful, like a nursery rhyme, and it broaches a dark topic in a jaunty manner token to American balladry. Similar themes are seen in the Appalachian ballads collected by folk singer Jean Ritchie only a decade later, with the help of Alan Lomax—particularly “The Hangman Song” or “Hangman”

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. These common themes in folk songs grappled with the hardships of daily life in rural America, engaging with the cultural values of the society—such as proper conduct with the opposite sex, in the case of “The Old Apple Tree In The Orchard,” or loyalty to one’s romantic partner, as seen in “Hangman.” It makes sense that these songs were brought with the migrants to the Californian camps, as they provided a sense of home for those who came halfway across the country in search of work, as well as an entertaining escape from the harsh realities faced by poor Americans during the Depression. 

The ability to embed audio into this blog offers a seamless way to incorporate the quotation of lyrics and brief quotes, as well as the incorporation of full song-length clips, in a way that does not disrupt the reader’s experience, but rather enriches it. In terms of historical analysis, it is especially useful for providing perspective as to the melody and inflection of the music, which would be lost in a transcription of the song’s lyrics, as well as providing necessary context for the tone of the speakers, and other vocal nuances that rarely make it onto the page. On a sentimental note, I believe that one of the great things about 20th century history is how we are able to engage with audio, video, and photographic resources in a way no historians were ever capable of doing before. Through audio, we can hear history with our own ears, and immerse ourselves in it. This not only humanizes the subjects whom we study, but also brings the era itself to life in a unique and vital way. 

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