THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Just fourteen years old at the start of the Depression, Alfred Watson lived in a small house near the Ohio River with his mother, sister, grandparents and His father had deserted the family when he was eight, deserted the family when he was eight
With only his Grandfather Thorn’s $95 railroad pension and his mother’s sewing and washing support the family, Watson’s memories of his childhood years in Eliot, Pennsylvania are reflected in these late Depression photographs.
This image of a blind man sitting in front of his dilapidated house was taken in the late Depression in rural Pennsylvania.The battered front door with its torn screen gives visual proof of the hardship of his daily life. A dog can be seen looking thru the screen door.
This poignant photograph of an elderly woman sitting by the side of the road was taken in Venango County, Pennsylvania. The anguished look on the woman’s face reveals the deprivation she and so many other Americans faced during the Great Depression.
A young boy looks thru a storefront window at a small dog in Dormont, Pennsylvania. The detail of the boy’s hat and coat adds to the scene as does the ad for wingtip shoes in the store’s window.
A man sells socks from a suitcase in front of a Pennsylvania bank during the Depression. A notice on the bank’s window you’re “not too young to have a savings account.”