The Great Depression - Images

Riding the rails. Source: Vancouver Public Library, VPL 30929
Riding the rails. Source: Vancouver Public Library, VPL 30948
People lining up at a soup kitchen. Source: Toronto Public Library, Toronto Star Collection, 3-SC-SU-167
“We came indeed greatly depressed, a depression that we soon learned was universal. [It was] challenging the confidence, and faith, and adaptability and resourcefulness of the people of our country as nothing has done before.”
R.B. Bennett
Prime Minister of Canada (1930-35)
Abandoned wagons and farm machinery, 1930s. Source: Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, R_A5211_1
Abandoned wagons and farm machinery, 1930s. Source: Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, R_A5211_2
Family and covered wagon en route to High Prairie, Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta. May 1933. Photographer: Mcdermid Studio, Edmonton, Alberta. Deynaka family photographed at Edmonton Market Square, May 6, 1933. L-R: Ted, John, Mike, Salomya holding Mary. An article about this family appeared in the Edmonton Journal, May 6, 1933. The article is available in the McDermid Depression Photos finding aid, Glenbow Archives.
“I remember the steady stream of people walking off their farms, with a truck or an old car, everything they had bundled in it, walking away from a lifetime of work, and unrealized hopes and dreams.”
Tommy Douglas
Premiere of Saskatchewan (1944-61), Leader of the NDP (1961-1971)
Unemployed Encampment. Source: City of Vancouver Archives
Unemployed Encampment. Source: City of Vancouver Archives
“What impressed me most in my talk with men in the jungle is the demoralizing effect of forced idleness: Nothing to do, and all day and night to do it in. In a land which needs the work of strong men, they are forced to deteriorate. We are reaping the harvest of an agricultural, economic and industrial system which has outlived its day.”
Rev. Andrew Roddan
First United Church