Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: The Dust Bowl & Great Depression Opening Program

Join us for "Dust, Drought, and Dreams Gone Dry: The Dust Bowl & Great Depression" opening exhibition program with UAFS Associate Professor, Dr. Steve Kite on Tuesday, June 18 @ 6:00 pm. 

Doors open at 5:30. Tickets at: https://www.fortsmithmuseum.org/events/dust-drought-and-dreams-gone-dry-the-dust-bowl-great-depression-opening-program

Opening Exhibition Program with UAFS Associate Professor, 

Dr. Steve Kite on Tuesday, June 18 @ 6:00 pm at the Fort Smith Museum of History, 320 Rogers Avenue. 

p: 479-783-7841

e: info@fortsmithmuseum.com

Tickets: fortsmithmuseum.org

Regular admission fees apply; FSMH Members are free.

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. Refreshments for the opening program will spotlight the foods available during the depression. Through resourcefulness called for during desperate times, foods such as "water pie" became a desert at the Depression Era dinner table. Other foods like beans and cornbread and fried potatoes have become standard southern fare. All will be served to attendees of the opening program. Doors open at 5:30.