Document for October 29th:
"The White Angel Bread Line"

"The White Angel Bread Line" By Dorothea Lange, San Francisco, California, 1933; Records of the Social Security Administration ; Record Group 47; National Archives.

Following a period of rampant speculation on Wall Street, the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, a major precipating event of the Great Depression — a decade-long economic catastrophe. By 1933 industrial production had fallen to one-third its pre-Depression levels, thousands of banks were closed, and almost 13 million Americans were jobless.

This photo of a Depression-era bread line was taken by Dorothea Lange at the White Angel Jungle, a soup kitchen for San Francisco’s jobless.

More Images of the Great Depression in Picturing the Century

Portfolio of Dorothea Lange Photos
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