Editing Dust Bowl (section)

==Influence on the arts and culture==
[[File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg|thumb|[[Florence Owens Thompson]] seen in the photo ''[[Migrant Mother]]'' by [[Dorothea Lange]]]]
[[File:Dust Bowl farmers of west Texas in town.jpg|thumb|"Dust bowl farmers of west Texas in town", photograph taken by [[Dorothea Lange]], June 1937, in [[Anton, Texas]].]]
The crisis was documented by photographers, musicians, and authors, many hired during the Great Depression by the federal government. For instance, the [[Farm Security Administration]] hired photographers to document the crisis. Artists such as [[Dorothea Lange]] were aided by having salaried work during the Depression.<ref name=WDL1>{{cite web |title=Destitute Pea Pickers in California: Mother of Seven Children, Age Thirty-two, Nipomo, California. Migrant Mother |url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/81/ |publisher=[[World Digital Library]] |access-date=February 10, 2013 |date=February 1936 |archive-date=January 26, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130126040914/http://www.wdl.org/en/item/81/ |url-status=live }}</ref> She captured what have become classic images of the dust storms and migrant families. Among her best-known photographs is ''Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children''<ref name=WDL1/> depicted a gaunt-looking woman, [[Florence Owens Thompson]], holding three of her children. This picture expressed the struggles of people caught by the Dust Bowl and raised awareness in other parts of the country of its reach and human cost. Decades later, Thompson disliked the boundless circulation of the photo and resented that she had received no money from its broadcast. Thompson felt it made her perceived as a Dust Bowl "Okie".<ref>{{cite book |last1=DuBois |first1=Ellen Carol |last2=Dumenil |first2=Lynn |title=Through Women's Eyes |year=2012 |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |isbn=978-0-312-67603-2 |page=583 |edition=Third}}</ref>

The work of independent artists was also influenced by the crises of the Dust Bowl and the Depression. Author [[John Steinbeck]], borrowing closely from field notes taken by [[Farm Security Administration]] worker and author [[Sanora Babb]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-dust-bowl/sanora-babb/ |title=The Dust Bowl – Sanora Babb biography |author=<!--Not stated--> |publisher=PBS |access-date=2 May 2021 |quote= |archive-date=August 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819065920/https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-dust-bowl/sanora-babb/ |url-status=live }}</ref> wrote ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939) about migrant workers and farm families displaced by the Dust Bowl. Babb's own novel about the lives of the migrant workers, ''[[Whose Names Are Unknown]]'', was written in 1939, but was eclipsed and shelved in response to Steinbeck's success, and was not published till 2004.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/babb/career/whose2.html |title=Whose Names Are Unknown: Sanora Babb |publisher=[[Harry Ransom Center]] |access-date=December 22, 2015 |archive-date=December 8, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208142018/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/web/babb/career/whose2.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/bios/sanora-babb/ |title=Biographies: Sanora Babb |author=Dayton Duncan, preface by Ken Burns |work=The Dust Bowl: An Illustrated History |date=2012 |publisher=PBS |access-date=February 13, 2016 |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024023/http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/bios/sanora-babb/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>See:
* Lanzendorfer, Joy, [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/forgotten-dust-bowl-novel-rivaled-grapes-wrath-180959196/ "The forgotten Dust Bowl novel that rivaled 'The Grapes of Wrath'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171228171606/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/forgotten-dust-bowl-novel-rivaled-grapes-wrath-180959196/ |date=December 28, 2017 }}, ''Smithsonian.com'', 2016 May 23.
* [http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/bios/sanora-babb/ "Sanora Babb"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304024023/http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/bios/sanora-babb/ |date=March 4, 2016 }}, The Dust Bowl: a film by Ken Burns, PBS.org (2012)
* For the role of Tom Collins of the Farm Security Administration in Steinbeck's novel, see: John Steinbeck with Robert Demott, ed., ''Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, 1938–1941'' (New York, New York: Penguin Books, 1990), [https://books.google.com/books?id=6anuYIZDBOIC&pg=PR28 pp. xxvii–xxviii] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429190813/https://books.google.com/books?id=6anuYIZDBOIC&pg=PR28 |date=April 29, 2021 }}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6anuYIZDBOIC&pg=PA33 33 (journal entry for 1938 June 24).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429051210/https://books.google.com/books?id=6anuYIZDBOIC&pg=PA33 |date=April 29, 2021 }}</ref> Many of folk singer [[Woody Guthrie]]'s songs, such as those on his 1940 album ''[[Dust Bowl Ballads]]'', are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, when he traveled with displaced farmers from Oklahoma to California and learned their traditional folk and blues songs, earning him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Troubadour".<ref>Alarik, Scott. [http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/08/07/robert_burns_unplugged/ Robert Burns unplugged.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304073154/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/08/07/robert_burns_unplugged/ |date=March 4, 2016 }} ''The Boston Globe'', August 7, 2005. Retrieved on December 5, 2007.</ref>

Migrants also influenced musical culture wherever they went. Oklahoma migrants, in particular, were rural Southwesterners who carried their traditional country music to California. Today, the "[[Bakersfield Sound]]" describes this blend, which developed after the migrants brought country music to the city. Their new music inspired a proliferation of country dance halls as far south as Los Angeles.

The 2003–2005 [[HBO]] TV series ''[[Carnivàle]]'' was set during the Dust Bowl period.

The 2014 science fiction film ''[[Interstellar (film)|Interstellar]]'' features a ravaged 21st-century America that is again scoured by dust storms (caused by a worldwide pathogen affecting all crops). Along with inspiration from the 1930s crisis, director [[Christopher Nolan]] features interviews from the 2012 documentary ''[[The Dust Bowl (film)|The Dust Bowl]]'' to draw further parallels.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/11/06/how-ken-burns-surprise-role-in-interstellar-explains-the-movie/ |title=How Ken Burns' surprise role in 'Interstellar' explains the movie |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Alyssa |last=Rosenberg |date=November 6, 2014 |access-date=November 8, 2014 |archive-date=November 8, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108023023/http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/11/06/how-ken-burns-surprise-role-in-interstellar-explains-the-movie/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2017, Americana recording artist [[Grant Maloy Smith]] released the album ''[[Dust Bowl – American Stories]]'', inspired by the history of the Dust Bowl.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://kdminer.com/news/2017/jun/01/kingman-gets-mention-dust-bowl-album/?templates=desktop |title=Kingman gets a mention on Dust Bowl album |work=Kingman Daily Miner |first=Hubble |last=Smith |date=June 1, 2017 |access-date=June 11, 2017 |archive-date=October 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010022349/https://kdminer.com/news/2017/jun/01/kingman-gets-mention-dust-bowl-album/?templates=desktop |url-status=live }}</ref> In a review, the music magazine ''[[No Depression (magazine)|No Depression]]'' wrote that the album's lyrics and music are "as potent as Woody Guthrie, as intense as [[John Trudell]] and dusted with the trials and tribulations of [[Tom Joad]]{{snd}}Steinbeck and ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]''."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nodepression.com/album-review/expressive-original-songs-steeped-dirt-reality-dust-bowl-depression-era |title=Expressive Original Songs Steeped In the Dirt & Reality of the Dust Bowl-Depression Era |work=No Depression |first=John |last=Apice |date=May 22, 2017 |access-date=June 11, 2017 |archive-date=July 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170706030509/http://nodepression.com/album-review/expressive-original-songs-steeped-dirt-reality-dust-bowl-depression-era |url-status=live }}</ref>