Dust Bowl - Influence On The Arts

Influence On The Arts

The crisis was documented by photographers, musicians, and authors. Many were hired by various U.S. federal agencies during the Great Depression. The Farm Security Administration hired numerous photographers to document the crisis. This helped the careers of many notable artists, including Dorothea Lange. She captured iconic images of the storms and migrant families, the most famous of which was a photograph entitled Migrant Mother, which depicted a gaunt-looking woman, Florence Owens Thompson, holding her three children. This picture captured the horrors of the Dust Bowl and caused more people to be aware of the crisis of the country.

The work of independent artists, such as American novelist John Steinbeck's novels Of Mice and Men (1937) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939), and the music of folk singer Woody Guthrie, was also influenced by the crises of the Dust Bowl and the Depression.

Migrants leaving the Plains states took their music with them. Oklahoma migrants, in particular, were descended from rural Southerners and transplanted country music to California. Today, the "Bakersfield Sound" describes this blend, which developed after the migrants brought country music to the city. Their new music inspired a proliferation of country dance halls as far south as Los Angeles.