James Gregory (History)

Sarah Nash Gates (Drama)

Mark Jenkins (Drama)

The Great Depression transformed the state of Washington along with the rest of the United States and much of the world. The massive unemployment and dislocation of the early 1930s set up the New Deal Era which saw the state rebuild on a new footing. A powerful labor movement and more liberal Democratic Party, a vast new energy and transportation infrastructure that provided the foundation for large scale industrialization, and a new infrastructure of education, media, and the arts—these were some of transformations. Equally, the social priorities and cultural values of most Washingtonians changed as ordinary citizens joined in a massive surge of political activism and democratic awakening.

This project will create an accessible and teachable resource for exploring these changes and helping the community think about the relationship between past and current economic crises and the opportunities for history making that can follow. We have found that local history provides a powerful lens for public engagement with historical issues. People want to know how their communities experienced events and processes that otherwise seem distant and abstract. The local lens also teaches that everyday people, not just great Presidents, make history. This is also an opportunity to produce a resource for our state that has no counterpart elsewhere. There are online projects about the Great Depression that provide broad overviews, but nothing that shows in detail how a particular state experienced this pivotal decade.