Brenda Elthon Profile picture
I write "Photo of the Day," a little Substack newsletter presenting history's best photos and the stories behind them. https://t.co/oyVkU8zvt8

Feb 5, 2022, 9 tweets

#FDR
1932

Alvin Sharpe, North Carolina
1935

many farm families lacked indoor plumbing during the Depression

water was drawn from an outdoor pump

people bathed once a week, in shared water that had been heated on a wood-burning stove

this is how homes were illuminated before the New Deal rural electrification project brought electricity to farms

inadequate, stinky, a fire hazard

big government works

#FDR

before Nintendo

1935

homeless man
Depression

trying to sell the idea of social security

1930s

wringer washer, one step above a scrub board
two steps above stones along a riverside
this woman would have heated water on a wood stove, then carried the heavy bucket outside

one gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds

she carried a five-gallon bucket; do the math

Depression
#FDR

Social Security records, late 1930s

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