Dust Bowl

 

Albert Abramovitz

  1879 - 1963 (biography)

c. 1932  

blockprint 

6 1/2 x 7 7/8" image 

pencil, lower right 

under 25 

 

 

smooth ivory wove 

published 

WPA??? 

MIST102 

SOLD

Dust Bowl depicts a family, carrying all of their valuables, trudging along a rural road while a dust storm swirls in the background. The Dust Bowl was a period of severe dust storms that greatly damaged the ecology and agriculture of the American and Canadian prairies during the 1930s; severe drought and failure to apply dryland farming methods to prevent wind erosion caused the phenomenon. The land became worthless and families were forced to move, many headed west, hopeful of finding work in the lush farmlands, ranches, and orchards of California (e.g.The Grapes of Wrath). These Dust Bowl refugees were called Okies and faced discrimination, menial labor, and pitiable wages upon reaching California. Many of them lived in shantytowns and tents along irrigation ditches. Okie became a term of disdain used to refer to any poor Dust Bowl migrant, regardless of their state of origin.