Boyd Gallery

Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: The Dust Bowl & Great Depression is a traveling exhibit originally organized by the American Library Association, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Dr. Jess C. Porter from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. It traveled to twenty-five sites across the US and is now in the permanent care of the Oklahoma History Center traveling exhibits program.

Part of the exhibit content was drawn from the Oklahoma State University library and features their Women of the Dust Bowl oral histories (visitors will find QR codes throughout the exhibit that link to these oral histories). Mount Holyoke College Library, which houses the Caroline Henderson papers (letters, essays, and articles by a woman who farmed throughout the Dust Bowl) was also an inspiration for the exhibit.

This exhibit will engage visitors as they learn about the human and ecological consequences of one of America’s most disastrous environmental experiences. Artifacts from the Fort Smith Museum of History archive collection will be on display as representations of the era, supporting the storytelling aspect of the lingering effects of the Great Depression as described in Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry. 

​

Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: The Dust Bowl & Great Depression runs from May 30, 2024- August 31, 2024. 

​

​

​