Introductory Image

Ben Shahn, Years of Dust, 1937. Beginning in the early 1930s, areas of the US experienced a severe drought that brought huge dust storms to parts of the Midwest and southern plains. In 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s government created the Resettlement Administration (later known as the Farm Security Administration) to help alleviate the rural poverty that resulted from the dust storms and the Depression. This poster publicizing the program is believed to be the first designed by the artist. Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum / NARA.