Browse Exhibits (14 total)
Makeup and Beauty of the Great Depression
Makeup is inherently superficial, but can also give us a unique insight into the mindsets and motives of the people that bought and used it, regardless of time period.
In "Grapes of Wrath", the only mention made of makeup is made in reference to the "shitheels," the wealthy, unhappy women with "a thousand accoutrements: creams, oils to grease themselves, coloring matter in phials, black, pink, red, white, green, silver, to change the color of hair, eyes, lips, nails, brows, lashes, lids." Of course it makes sense for the women unaffected by the Great Depression to continue using makeup as liberally as they had during the Roaring 20s.
What I'm more interested in, however, is what the women who were affected by the Great Depression used as far as cosmetics, how they used them, and why.
This topic is sporadically documented at best, and I believe that that lack of readily available information on the subject is not due to a lack of data but a lack of perceived validity. It is all too easy to write off the subject of beauty, especially during times of duress, as a silly luxury indulged in only by the very rich and the very gullible. To do so would discredit the cultural and contextual significance of makeup, however, which is why I intend to examine it here not through the lens of Hollywood starlets of the same era but through the eyes of the real women who, for whatever conscious or subconscious reason, felt better struggling through an economic catastrophe with a ten cent bag of cosmetics purchased at the discount store than without.
As an addendum, I would like to note that the personal belongings of men enduring various hardships have been far more likely to garner the respect they deserve. Clothing items like blue Levi's jeans have become an iconic symbol of the noble American man, while large portions of books like "The Things They Carried" have painstakingly documented the belongings of soldiers at war. Of course I can see that a tube of lipstick carried in a jalopy is less poignant than an engraved lighter carried through the jungles of Vietnam, but I believe that both are important in their own way and deserve both respect and a proper inspection of their respective value.
Alcohol of the early 1930's
This exhibit emphasizes on alcohol in America during the early 1930's. In John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath, Steinbeck illustrates the Joad family who are forced to leave their home of Oklahoma due to the Great Depression. While Steinbeck exposes the reader to the socio-economic issues of the 1930's such as the the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, he highlights real-life challenges that families such as the Joads dealt with, as they faced these trials and triumphs together.
During the late 1920's to early 1930's the sale and manufacture of alcohol was forbidden. In fact, it was illegal, marking fourteen years of the Prohibition. Nine years after the end of the Prohibituon, Grapes of Wrath was published. The consumption of alcohol reoccurs throughout the novel, which very much symbolizes the anguish that the American people experienced during the thirties. Characters such as Uncle John illustrate a ones' desire to want to escape the reality of America during that period.
1930s Service Stations
Celebrating the Transportation Revolution!
The former American icon is now referred to as a gas station rather than a service station. Some of the service stations that were along Route 66 during the 1930s include Soulsby’s Shell Station, Bob Audetters’, Texaco, and Phillips 66. By 1930,due to Henry Ford’s revolution of the car industry there were over 100,000 stations in America. Not only did these stations provide gas, but automobile supplies and services as well – tires, batteries, oil, tire patching, and lube jobs.
In chapter 13 John Steinbeck’s novel, Grapes of Wrath, you might recall the fat, condescending service station attendant who complains to the Joads about his trade. As he laments on the changes going around in his environment - "I don’ know what the country’s comin’ to." - we are reminded of the injustice these small business owners/farmers had to face.
This exhibit is dedicated to the fat man and his dilapidated gas station.
American Pop Music of the 1930s
This exhibit will be examining Popular American Music of the 1930's, it may explore the dichotomy between American Pop music as a manefactured commidity of what the "people" should be listening to, and American folk music as the essense of what the people felt.
It's goal is to give to context to John Steinbeck's the Grapes of Wrath. It may just result in a list of songs from the 1930's with a vague argument on how the song pertained to the cultural air of their time.