INSPIRATION BORN OUT OF DISASTER

How art turned the Dust Bowl into folklore

A number of artists, musicians and photographers helped in cementing the Dust Bowl era firmly into American history and even folklore.

JOHN STEINBECK John Steinbeck’s 1939 prize-winning novel The Grapes Of Wrath, although a work of fiction, took its authenticity from the field notes of government agents working with the farmers and the migrants. The book and subsequent film underpinned the belief in the strength of the American spirit in a slightly romanticised way but did much to draw attention to the plight of those affected at a time when the events were still so fresh in the memory.

WOODY GUTHRIE As a native of the mid-west the folk musician Woody Guthrie called on his own experiences of the Dust Bowl and those of the migrants he travelled with from Oklahoma to California in his 1940 album ‘Dust Bowl Ballads’, earning him the nickname the ‘Dust Bowl Troubadour’. Music styles of the mid-west migrated with the people and many of its influences can still be heard in states such as California.

DOROTHEA LANGE A government photographer paid to record the unfolding events of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, Dorothea Lange’s images have become iconic in the stories and tragedies they chronicle and reveal. Perhaps her most iconic image is that of Migrant Mother of Seven, Florence Thompson, which was circulated around the country and the world, bringing awareness to the plight of the migrants and was even used on government posters to promote welfare payments.