50 Years Ago No. 4

“Fall Hardware-Housewares Promotion 1971.” Popular Science, Vol 199, no. 4,
October 1971, page 135.

Dust, Drought, Depression, and War No. 22

While the Great Depression is usually associated with windblown erosion, many areas of the United States had for decades suffered from soil erosion of disturbed soil by rain. Much of this loss was from cultivated and abandoned fields and overgrazed pastures and ranges¹  while unsustainable logging practices stripped mountain watersheds and wreaked havoc on mountain wildlife and fisheries with local economies, once self-sufficient, finding themselves in decline.²

Typical eroded road near proposed Mammoth Cave National Park and CCC Camp # 4,
Tom Jones, September 12, 1934

By the 20th century, generations of mismanagement had badly damaged much of the nation’s land resources and watersheds.  Removal of forest growth, grasses, and shrubs, and breaking of the ground’s surface by cultivation, overgrazing and trampling by livestock, the building of roads, mining, etc., created conditions that resulted in accelerated soil erosion far beyond what had previously taken place under natural conditions.³ In the South, constant cultivation of cotton and tobacco had damaged soil, robbing it of nutrients needed for crops to grow well and making it more susceptible to erosion.⁴

Outskirts of Tupelo, Mississippi, with structures and erosion, Walker Evans, March 1936

In 1934, Arthur E. Morgan, head of the Tennessee Valley Authority, said that surveys showed that “in the period of settlement—a little over a hundred years—one-half of the good farmlands of the Tennessee Valley had been quite ruined by soil erosion (water)” and that in some of the hill sections of Georgia the land had already washed away so badly that some counties had lost half of their farm population.⁵

Erosion. Stewart County, Georgia. Arthur Rothstein, February 1937

On May 1, 1935, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7027 establishing a new federal agency to be known as the “Resettlement Administration” (RA). Its mandate included initiating projects associated with soil erosion, stream pollution, seacoast erosion, reforestation, forestation, and flood control.⁶  The RA was involved in a variety of activities during its two years of existence and had absorbed similar New Deal programs.

1930s Resettlement Administration poster, Bernarda Bryson

American farmers had been particularly hurt by the 1930s economic downturn.  Hit by both the Great Depression and plummeting crop prices, often with debt accumulated over many years, “many, if not most faced serious problems of soil erosion, worn-out land, drought, and floods.”⁷

Erosion south of Franklin, Heard County, Georgia, Jack Delano, April 1941

1. Bennett, Hugh Hammond, and William Ridgely Chapline. “Soil Erosion A National Menace .” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, April 1928. Internet Archive. Accessed October 1, 2021. https://archive.org/…soil erosion.
2. Martin, Brent. “Forest Removal in the Georgia Mountains.” Georgia Forest Watch. New Georgia Encyclopedia, July 18, 2003. Accessed October 1, 2021. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/…georgia-mountains.
3. Bennett and Chapline.
4. Bishop, RoAnn. “Agriculture in North Carolina during the Great Depression.” Originally published as “Difficult Days on Tar Heel Farms.” Tar Heel Junior Historian. NCpedia, 2010. Accessed October 1, 2021. https://www.ncpedia.org/…great-depression.
5. Smith, J. Russell. “The Drought—Act of God and Freedom.” Survey Graphic 23, no. 9, September 1934. https://exit78.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/surveygraphic23survrich_420.pdf
6. Roosevelt, Franklin D. “Executive Order 7027 Establishing the Resettlement Administration.” The American Presidency Project, May 1, 1935. Accessed October 1, 2021. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/…resettlement-administration.
7. “Resettlement Administration (RA) (1935).” Living New Deal, October 20, 2020. Accessed October 1, 2021. https://livingnewdeal.org/…resettlement-administration.

This post is part of a continuing series of posts exploring the almost 16 years between the crash of the stock market and the end of World War 2—no limits, no specific focus.

Posts already prepared—both published and scheduled—are listed at Dust, drought, depression, and war – the posts.

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 159 of over 1200 images

Mountain cottontail at Devil’s Tower National Monument, Wyoming, August 28, 2007

Mountain cottontail²

The mountain cottontail or Nuttall’s cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttallii) is a species of mammal in the family Leporidae. It is found in Canada and the United States.

A small rabbit, its size is relatively large for the genus. Hind legs are long; the feet are densely covered with long hair. Ears are relatively short and rounded at the tips; the inner surfaces are noticeably haired. It has pale brown fur on the back, a distinct pale brown nape on the back of the head, black-tipped ears, a white-grey tail, and a white underside. The brown nape on the back of the head is a smaller size from than that of the Snowshoe Hare, helping to distinguish the two separate species from each other.

(read more)

Post Endnotes

1. 1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
   2. “Mountain Cottontail.” Wikipedia, as edited June 17, 2021. Accessed October 4, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org… Mountain_cottontail.

Series Notes:

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay, Flickr, and Pinterest.
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image-sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Early Color Photography No. 2
Vintage Camping No. 3

Nochevka u kamni a na beregu Chusovo
(Translation: Night camp by a rock on the bank of the Chusovaia)
1912, Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky

Documenting the Russian Empire in Color^{1, 2}

Outfitted with a specially equipped railroad-car darkroom provided by Tsar Nicholas II and in possession of two permits that granted him access to restricted areas and cooperation from the empire’s bureaucracy, Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky documented the Russian Empire between around 1909 and 1915. He conducted many illustrated lectures of his work. His photographs offer a vivid portrait of a lost world—the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I and the coming Russian Revolution. His subjects ranged from the medieval churches and monasteries of old Russia, to the railroads and factories of an emerging industrial power, to the daily life and work of Russia’s diverse population.

1. “Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.” Wikipedia, as last edited September 8, 2021. Accessed October, 2, 2021. https://en.wikipedia….Prokudin-Gorsky.
2. In the photographic process used by Prokudin-Gorsky, “the visible spectrum of colors was divided into three channels of information by capturing it in the form of three black-and-white photographs, one taken through a red filter, one through a green filter, and one through a blue filter. The resulting three photographs could be projected through filters of the same colors and exactly superimposed on a screen, synthesizing the original range of color additively; or viewed as an additive color image by one person at a time through an optical device known generically as a chromoscope or photochromoscope, which contained colored filters and transparent reflectors that visually combined the three into one full-color image; or used to make photographic or mechanical prints in the complementary colors cyan, magenta and yellow, which, when superimposed, reconstituted the color subtractively.”

Civil War Era Photographic Portraiture no. 5
Originally Published in American Civil War Chronicles

Title
[Jesse Sharpe Barnes, later captain of Co. F, 4th North Carolina Infantry, in South Carolina militia uniform with sword and pistols]
Summary
Photograph shows identified soldier, Jesse S. Barnes, a Confederate captain who was killed on May 31, 1862, at Seven Pines, Virginia. Captain Barnes probably fought in a South Carolina militia unit before organizing the Wilson Light Infantry which became Company F, 4th North Carolina Infantry and began enlisting on April 18, 1861. (Source: Katharina Schlichtherle, 2015)
Created / Published
[between 1861]
Subject Headings
– Barnes, Jesse Sharpe,–1838-1862
– Confederate States of America.–Army.–North Carolina Infantry Regiment, 4th.–Company F–People–1860-1870
– Soldiers–Confederate–1860-1870
– Military uniforms–Confederate–1860-1870
– Handguns–1860-1870
– Daggers & swords–1860-1870
– United States–History–Civil War, 1861-1865–Military personnel–Confederate
Headings
Ambrotypes–Hand-colored–1860-1870.
Portrait photographs–1860-1870.
Genre
Portrait photographs–1860-1870
Ambrotypes–Hand-colored–1860-1870
Notes
– Identification based on an almost identical photograph of Jesse S. Barnes published in Histories of the several regiments and battalions from North Carolina, in the great war 1861-’65 … Ed. by Walter Clark. Raleigh : E.M. Uzzell, printer, 1901, vol. 1, bet. pp. 256-257. The uniform depicted in the book shows has been painted over to change it to a North Carolina uniform.
– Title devised by Library staff.
– Case: Leather; floral and scroll design.
– Jesse Sharpe Barnes was brother to William Sharpe Barnes who is depicted in AMB/TIN no. 2697 and cousin to Thomas A. Martin who is tentatively identified as being depicted in AMB/TIN no. 2696.
– Palmetto tree insignia on cap.
– Vintage mat supplied by donor.
– Gift; Tom Liljenquist; 2011; (DLC/PP-2012:127).
– More information about this collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.lilj
– Purchased from: Bryan Watson, Civil War Images, Torrington, Wyoming, 2011, who obtained this photograph with two others, one of William Sharpe Barnes (AMB/TIN no. 2697) and the second one tentatively identified as Thomas A. Martin (AMB/TIN no. 2696), from an estate in Florida.
– Forms part of: Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress).
Medium
1 photograph : quarter-plate ambrotype, hand-colored ; 11.9 x 9.3 cm (case)
Call Number/Physical Location
AMB/TIN no. 2730 [P&P]
Source Collection
Ambrotype/Tintype filing series (Library of Congress) Liljenquist Family collection (Library of Congress)
Repository
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id
ppmsca 31657 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.31657
Library of Congress Control Number
2011648526
Reproduction Number
LC-DIG-ppmsca-31657 (digital file from original item)

Library of Congress permalink
___________
Mike’s notes:

Note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject

Royalty-free images by Mike¹ — No. 158 of over 1200 images

Buffalo Gap National Grassland, South Dakota, August 23, 2007

Buffalo Gap National Grassland²

Buffalo Gap National Grassland is a National Grassland located primarily in southwestern South Dakota. It is second largest National Grassland in the United States after Little Missouri National Grassland in North Dakota. Characteristics of the grasslands include mixed prairie and chalky badlands. The grassland is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and is a division of Nebraska National Forest. In descending order of land area it is located in parts of Fall River, Pennington, Jackson, and Custer counties.

Buffalo Gap National Grassland is managed by the Forest Service together with the Nebraska and Samuel R. McKelvie National Forests and the Fort Pierre and Oglala National Grasslands from common offices in Chadron, Nebraska. There are local ranger district offices located in Hot Springs and Wall. It also surrounds Badlands National Park and Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.

(read more)

Post Endnotes

1. I am sharing some of my public domain images in periodic blog posts.
2. “Buffalo Gap National Grassland.” Wikipedia, last edited May 3, 2021. Accessed October 2, 2021.  https://en.wikipedia.org/…Grassland.

Series Notes:

• This image is also shared as public domain on Pixabay, Flickr, and Pinterest.
• Images are being shared in the sequence they were accepted by Pixabay, a royalty-free image-sharing site.
• Only images specifically identified as such are public domain or creative commons on our pages.
• All other images are copyright protected by me, creative commons, or used under the provisions of fair use.

Police route Communists with tear gas at a demonstration during Congress opening.
Washington, D.C., December 1, 1930¹

Times Wide World Photos “Red Riot at Capitol” December 1, 1930³

A Protest Against “Discriminatory Legislation”

The demonstrators, claiming to be delegates to the “National Conference for the Protection of the Foreign Born”^4,5 had arrived at the capitol in groups of twos and threes and by a prearranged signal formed into a solid mass of several hundred with many bearing placards with inscriptions such as “Down With Discriminatory Legislation” and “Down With Fingerprinting of Aliens.”  Just as Congress was convening at noon, the crowd was charged by about 20 Capitol Police who tore down the signs, trampling them underfoot. A fight broke out as the demonstrators resisted the police efforts to disperse the demonstrators. A detail of Metropolitan Police, as well as a number of spectators, rushed in to help the Capitol Police.

The police mixed in with the resisting radicals and a number of the officers had to use their clubs to ward off threatened attacks by members of the mob. With the struggling group surrounded by a constantly growing circle of excited spectators, the police began firing the tear gas devices, the explosions of which gave rise to false reports that shooting had begun. Agitators, police and many of the spectators were affected by the fumes of the gas and weeping was general. News and movie photographers were in the thick of things and they, too, suffered so much that picture taking was temporarily halted. Impromptu orators perched on the Capitol steps answered the tirades of the Communists. Shouts of “take them away,” “put them all in jail,” came from the men and women who jammed the steps and platforms of the building, while answering shouts of “down with empirialism” and “down with the dirty cowards” arose from the radicals.⁶

A police officer fires a tear gas pistol at demonstrators at the edge of the U.S. Capitol grounds December 1, 1930.⁷

Police use clubs and tear gas at the foot of the U.S. Capitol to break up a demonstration at the opening of the Third Session of the 71st Congress⁸

1. Harris & Ewing. “Police Route Communists with Tear Gas at Demonstration during Congress Opening.” Library of Congress, image December 1, 1930. Accessed September 30, 2021. https://www.loc.gov/….2016878950.
2. “Battle Reds as Congress Opens Session.” Indianapolis Times, December 1, 1930, page 1, col. 1.
3. “Times Wide World Photos. ‘Red Riot at Capitol.’” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed September 30, 2021. https://www.moma.org…58742.
4. “American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born.” Wikipedia, as of May 26, 2021 edit. Accessed September 30, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/…Protection_of_Foreign_Born.
   • National Council for the Protection of the Foreign Born… seen by the US federal government as subversive for “protecting foreign Communists who come to this country,” thus “enabling them to operate here.
5. “Organize National Council for Protection of Foreign-Born.” News Release from the Workers Party of America Press Service. January 30, 1923. Accessed September 30, 2021. https://www.marxists.org/…wpa-natcouncilforeign.pdf.
6. “Police Use Tear Gas on Reds in Capitol Grounds.” The Evening Star. Washington, D.C. December 1, 1930, page 1.
7. “Cops Use Tear Gas on Immigration Protest: 1930.” Flickr. Image December 1, 1930. Accessed September 30, 2021 https://www.flickr.com/….
8. “Gas and Clubs Rout Protesters at Capitol: 1930.” Flickr. Accessed September 30, 2021. https://www.flickr.com.

This post is part of a continuing series of posts exploring the almost 16 years between the crash of the stock market and the end of World War 2—no limits, no specific focus.

Posts already prepared—both published and scheduled—are listed at Dust, drought, depression, and war – the posts.

50 Years Ago No. 3

Walt Disney World opens October 1, 1971, near Orlando, Florida.

On October 1, 1971, Walt Disney World¹ initially opened what is now called Magic Kingdom² as well as two resorts, Disney’s Contemporary Resort³ and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.⁴

Located near Orlando, Florida, Magic Kingdom began with twenty-three attractions.  Three were new to the park and twenty were replicas of attractions at the original park, Disneyland in California.  The theme park was laid out like a wheel with Cinderella Castle at the hub.  Pathways led from the castle into six themed “lands:” Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Liberty Square, Tomorrowland, and Main Street USA.

Magic Kingdom opened in October in the hopes that the first crowds would be small, unlike the July 17th, 1955, disastrous opening of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.⁵

While the Florida Highway Patrol had issued a statement that estimated as many as 300,000 people might try to be the first to visit Magic Kingdom, only about 10,000 showed up to be entertained and supported by 5,500 cast members and workers.  This gave the theme park time to work out problems before official dedications and media events that occurred later in the month.

1. “Walt Disney World.” Wikipedia as of September 17, 2021 edit. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://en.wikipedia…Walt_Disney_World.
2. “Magic Kingdom.” Wikipedia, as of August 31, 2021 edit. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org… Magic_Kingdom.
3. “Disney’s Contemporary Resort.” Wikipedia, as of August 17, 2021 edit. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org…Contemporary_Resort.
4. “Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort.” Wikipedia, as of August 16, 2021 edit. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org…Polynesian_Village_Resort.
5. Daubs, Katie. “Disneyland on Day 1 Was a Disaster They Called ‘Black Sunday.’” thestar.com, July 17, 2016. Accessed September 21, 2021. https://www.thestar.com…a-disaster-they-called-black-sunday.

It was a preview of sorts, meant for celebrities, press and various VIPS, with a live television broadcast. But tickets were counterfeited and the park was unprepared for the 35,000 that came.

Traffic jammed the freeway, and children were reported to be urinating in the parking lot because they had been trapped in their cars so long. Some rides weren’t ready, some broke down and vendors ran out of food. A plumbers strike in the weeks before the opening meant Walt Disney had to make a decision: the bathrooms were working, but not the drinking fountains.

Shift change traffic near Connecticut’s United Aircraft Plant, 1941

Pre-World War II Aircraft Production¹

In 1939, U.S. military aircraft production was less than 3,000 planes.  Earlier in the year, President Roosevelt appealed to Congress for funding to procure aircraft for the Army Air Corps which, at that time, only had about 1,700 planes.  Congress authorized the procurement of 3,251 aircraft.

The Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed for arms trade with belligerent nations (Great Britain and France) on a cash-and-carry basis. By 1940, the British had ordered $1,200,000,000 worth of aircraft.

The American aircraft industry quickly adapted to the demands of war.  In 1939 contracts assumed single shift production, but the factories soon moved to two- and then three-shift schedules.

Photograph information at the Library of Congress

Title: Congestion outside United Aircraft plant at afternoon change of shift. East Hartford Connecticut
Creator(s): Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990, photographer
Date Created/Published: 1941 May-June.
Medium: 1 negative : nitrate ; 35 mm.
Reproduction Number: LC-USF33-031221-M5 (b&w film nitrate neg.) LC-DIG-fsa-8a44116 (digital file from original neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White Photographs
Call Number: LC-USF33- 031221-M5 [P&P] LOT 1285 (corresponding photographic print)
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Notes:
….Title and other information from caption card.
….Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.
….More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi

Library of Congress item permalink

Mike’s notes:

Image restoration note – This image has been digitally adjusted for one or more of the following:
– fade correction,
– color, contrast, and/or saturation enhancement
– selected spot and/or scratch removal
– cropped for composition and/or to accentuate subject matter
– straighten image

Image restoration is the process of using digital restoration tools to create new digital versions of the images while also improving their quality and repairing damage.