Day at 8 00 a. M. Eastern p. M. Eastern on American History tv. Weekend, American History tv is featuring santa rosa, california, located 75 miles north of San Francisco. The 1975 San Francisco earthquake destroyed much of santa rosa. Our Comcast Cable partners worked with cspans city tours staff when we travel to santa rosa to learn about the citys rich history. We looked in the north. Such a huge black cloud. It looked like smoke out of a train or something. We rolled over and got to the house. Were all afraid and we ran into the storm house because we thought it was a storm. We had to tie wet rags over our mouths just to keep from smothering. We would get cloth and tie it over her mouth in the summer and the oldtimers said they had never seen nothing like that. It was so fine our house was sealed, but that dust came through somehow. Even the stucco houses. You just had to mop really good when it was over to get it out. You could not get it out any other way. Lynn today we will be looking at our dust bowl migration archives, which we have had since 1994 materials gathered beginning in 1974, primarily by gerald haslam. He received dozens of letters offering to provide him with material. He also gathered material directly from people who worked in the camps. Charles todd and robert sunken are probably the most infamous of the people that worked in the camps on a daily basis between 1940 and 1941. Their goal was to gather stories and songs, either remembered by migrants from their previous times, or their relatives, or stories about their experience of migration and experiences in the camps. So, a lot of those recordings housed in the library of congress in the dust bowl oral history project. I think music has always served a purpose in peoples lives, especially in troubled times. I think one of the values for the migrants of ringing their songs with them was it was probably, besides their belongings, the one thing that could bring with them stories and songs. I think as they were exposed to the difficulties of life in new environment in california, and exposed to the difficulties of earning money and the difficulties of working for landlords who are not always kind and did not always give them living wages, they develop songs that reflected their new camps and they , included songs about wages and the difficulties of being a wageearner and not making enough to live on. And the possibility of striking there were a lot of labor and strike songs that were gathered. I think all of those songs together represent People Holding on to what will keep him whole and keep them able to survive this difficult experience. I am going to share with you some of the notes that were written by charles todd and Robert Sonkin when they arrive in each of the camps. They began recording their experiences in typewritten form. This is an example from 1940. We arrived at the farmworkers community at 3 00 p. M. The clerk on duty in the office directed us to the camp store to rogers, assistant camp manager. The store is a new, very neat building. According to the wife of the store manager, the blueprints from the office were upside down. They indicated a slope to the roof, which was obviously slanting in the wrong direction. They go on to the people they meet and try to collect some stories from. Here is an example. Dewey rogers, heavyset, rapid speech, eager to help. He took us to the library where we set up our machine. Keep rot around he brought around c. C. Cotton davis. Cotton davis, extroverted, full of gags and witty sayings. Cotton davis ended up giving sonkin and todd a lot of material for songs. He became infamous for them in the time they were in the camp. Anyone that comes now to research the time, and they do a wonderful job of introducing who these individual people were, so it is not just a mass of 350,000 okies. It is individual stories that have been a superb job of recording. That is why the library of congress has collected these materials. We have a number of photographs in our dust bowl migration archives. Most of the photographs were taken by a photographer in ventura. Almost all of the photographs are officially Farm Security administration photographs of life in the migrant camps of california. A few examples that are quite telling include this sign from the u. S. Department of agriculture Farm Security administration identifying the farmworkers community that exists that these children are posing in front of. Charles todd and Robert Sonkin collected songs and stories, and this photograph showing them in front of a microphone, getting ready to sing their songs for the phonograph placed in front of them is, again, both an iconic photograph, and also one that is very, very specific to these two people and their experience in the camp. Again, mrs. Pipkin holding a baby, sitting outside in the bright sun. A wonderful picture that speaks to the times. Her face looks much older than i am sure she was. Photograph in relation to the note that details the daily life in the camp and identifies many of these people, really helping to highlight family life what individual experiences were like. One of the collections, the subcollection is a collection of camp newsletters. These are copies of original materials that were handed out to everyone in the speech of the camps, where they were written. The unique thing about them, they were written by the migrant laborers themselves about life in the camp. I will review a few excerpts from one of the newsletters at the indio mining labor camp dated october 28, 1939. The title of the newsletter is the covered wagon. Comments from your camp manager i am very glad indeed to have this opportunity to work with you splendid folks. It is my desire to become better acquainted with all of you. Folks, this is your home and mine. When our little boys and girls grow up, how will they go toward the homes we have made for them . My sense from reading the camp newsletters is you had people in a situation in a communitythat was a forced by circumstance, and you had government workers mixed in with migrants, and they all worked very hard to develop and retain a feeling of community. They selfgoverned they assigned , committees that included not just picking up trash, but developing art, literature, having a game night, trying to build a sense of community, and they did not stop there. They developed workers rights alliances and groups and did not just talk amongst themselves. They organized and went on to larger conferences. I think it is an incredible example of what people in very difficult circumstances are able to do to be in community and to not feel alone and to have something to look forward to, to have something to share, to have hope for their children. I think each of these newsletters reflect that in one way or another. I think there are so many individual stories from the dust bowl migration and any migration, especially migration that is forced. People did not want to leave their land and their property, but they had absolutely no choice. I think some of the history of that is reflected in the passion with which people want their stories to be told. Throughout the weekend, our city tour staff travel to santa rosa, california. Learn more about santa rosa and other spots on our tour. You are watching American History tv, all weekend, every weekend. Bookshelf features popular writers and airs on American History tv every weekend. Author martha a. Sandweiss traces the evolution of photography and how it impacted the development of the american west. The Amon Carter Museum hosted this event in 2003. It is a little under 50 minutes. Deep is really such a pleasure to come back and talk about this project. Ms. Sandweiss as barbara suggested, my book is new, but some Research Began right here, nearly 20 years ago. More than 20 years ago
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