Oklahoma History Academic Standards

OKH.5.7 Describe the impact of environmental conditions and human mismanagement of resources resulting in the Dust Bowl and the migration of the "Okies", the national perceptions of Oklahomans, and the New Deal policies regarding conservation of natural resources.

"Woody Guthrie: The Dust Bowl Balladeer," Crossroads

Oklahoma History Center Education Resources

History Alive! Living History
Dust Bowl Housewife

Traveling Trunks
Dust Bowl and Great Depression
Oklahoma Agriculture

E-Exhibit
The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the New Deal in Oklahoma

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Donald A. Wilhite, "Dust Bowl"
Derek Arndt, "Drought"
Guy Logsdon, "Dust Bowl Lore"
Gilbert C. Fite, "Farming"
William H. Mullins, "Great Depression"
Keith L. Bryant, Jr., "New Deal"
William H. Mullins, "Okie Migrations"
Chongo Mundende, "Soil and Water Conservation"
Chongo Mundende, "Conservation Districts"
Suzanne H. Schrems, "Civilian Conservation Corps"
Jim Gabbert, "Resettlement Administration"

Research Center Resources

Audio/Visual

"Black Sunday," Radio Broadcast, K-101 Woodward, 3/24/1935 (H1984.112, Oklahoma Historical Society Audio Collection, OHS)
"The Dust Bowl" (F2013.134.2.0017, WKY-TV Film Collection, OHS)
"The Members of Company 810 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Heavener, Oklahoma, 1933" (F2010.108.1.053. Oklahoma Historical Society Film and Video Collection, OHS)

Online Primary Sources

Arthur Rothstein, Buried Farm Machinery, Cimarron County, Oklahoma 1936, Library of Congress
Arthur Rothstein, Wind Erosion, Cimarron County, Oklahoma 1936, Library of Congress
Dorothea Lange, photographer. Oklahoma dust bowl refugees, San Fernando, California, June 1935, Library of Congress
Dorothea Lange, photographer. Oklahoma dust bowl refugees, San Fernando, California, June 1935, Library of Congress
Interview about dust and sleet storms, 1940 part 1 and part 2, Library of Congress
Alexander Hogue, "Dust Bowl," 1933
Drought and dust storm conditions in the Great Plains area and preventive treatments, 1934-1935, Library of Congress
"Memories of Black Sunday," Dust Bowl Stories, PBS
"The Great Depression and the New Deal," National Archives
Dust Bowl Migration Primary Source Set and Teacher's Guide, Library of Congress
The New Deal Primary Source Set and Teacher's Guide, Library of Congress
"Stories from the Great Depression," National Archives
"Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940 to 1941," Library of Congress

Additional Resources

The Dust Bowl, PBS
Paul M. Sparrow, "FDR and the Dust Bowl," National Archives: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, June 20, 2018
"The Black Blizzards of Oklahoma," Smithsonian Institute Overview
"Almanac: The Dust Bowl," CBS Sunday Morning
"Hard travelin'; Dust Bowl refugees," 1968-01-04, University of Maryland, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
"WPA: The Road to Recovery," 2002-01-04, OETA, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
"Oklahoma Passage Telecourse #115 Great Depression - Unit 3, Lesson 5," 1991-09-04, OETA, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
"USA: Photography; 1; Dorothea Lange. Part 1: Under the Trees," 1966-01-23, KQED, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting
Caroline A. Henderson and Alvin O. Turner, Letters from the Dust Bowl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003)
Kevin Z. Sweeney, Prelude to the Dust Bowl: Drought in the Nineteenth-Century Southern Plains. 2016
James Noble Gregory, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991)
David B. Woolner, "FDR and the New Deal Response to an Environmental Catastrophe," Roosevelt Institute, June 3, 2010

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