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Grass, to Wheat, to Sand: The Dust Bowl Disaster

March 12–June 29, 2025
The Wolfsonian–FIU @ 1001 Washington Avenue

The Great Plains, a region in the United States stretching from Texas up into Canada, was completely transformed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Wild grasslands were converted to commercial wheat farms before poor land management and drought led to dust storms and disaster in the 1930s. Photographers, documentary filmmakers, and artists documented the ecological crisis that followed, with hundreds of thousands driven from the area to seek work as migrant pickers during the Great Depression. Through photographs, illustrations, film clips, and ephemera, the Florida International University student curators of this installation examine the Dust Bowl and the Roosevelt Administration's efforts to relieve refugees and rehabilitate the land.

This installation was originally presented in The Wolfsonian Library between December 16, 2023, and February 11, 2024.

 

Place:
3rd Floor
Curators:
Florida International University history students Amal Albaladejo, Valentina Berrio, Dwayne Krier, George Lee, Sophia Medina, and Carlos Manuel Bleiker Morcillo under the guidance of Francis Xavier Luca.
Credit:
Grass, to Wheat, to Sand: The Dust Bowl Disaster is organized by The Wolfsonian–FIU.

 

Explore the Installation

 

Object Highlights

View or download the full exhibition checklist.

A color illustration shows Indigenous hunters on horseback chasing buffalo across a grassy plain, shooting arrows. The text reads, "Each hunter singled out a running buffalo and sent an arrow straight into its heart."

Children’s book, Whistling-Two-Teeth and the Forty-nine Buffalos, 1939
Naomi Averill (American, 1905–?), author & illustrator
Grossett & Dunlap Co., New York City, publisher
The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, WC2012.04.6

A colorful illustration from the 1940 New York World's Fair depicts the progression of railroad history, featuring a modern streamlined train above historical locomotives, horse-drawn carriages, and pioneers. The text reads, "RAILROADS ON PARADE" and "The Hit Show of the Fair."

Program, Book of the Pageant, Railroads on Parade, 1940
William A. Mackay (American, 1878–1939), cover illustrator
Eastern Railroad Presidents Conference, New York City, publisher
The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, 84.2.13

A black-and-white photograph captures a massive dust storm approaching a row of houses. The text reads, "APPROACHING DUST STORM IN MIDDLE WEST."

Postcard, Approaching Dust Storm in Middle West, 1935
Frank Durnell Conard (American, 1884–1966), photographer
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Francis Xavier Luca & Clara Helena Palacio Luca, XC2023.06.18

A green booklet cover features black stylized figures walking in a line across a map-like shape. The text reads, "They Starve That We May Eat," "MIGRANTS OF THE CROPS," and "compiled by EDITH E. LOWRY."

 

Book, Migrants of the Crops: They Starve That We May Eat, 1940
Council of Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Movement, New York, publisher
The Wolfsonian–FIU, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection, WC2012.08.4.17

Recommended Resources

Readings

  • Timothy Egan. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
  • Caroline Henderson. Letters from the Dust Bowl Diary. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.
  • Martin W. Sandler. The Dust Bowl Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster. New York: Walker & Company, 2009.
  • John Steinbeck. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: The Viking Press, 1939.

Videos

  • The Plow That Broke the Plains. Directed by Pare Lorentz, U.S. Resettlement Administration, 1936.
  • The Grapes of Wrath. Directed by John Ford, 20th Century Fox, 1940.
  • Three Faces West. Directed by Bernard Vorhaus, Republic Pictures, 1940.