• Visit
    • Museum Accessibility
    • Community Access
    • Group Visits and Tours
    • Programs
      • History Café
      • MOHAI Mercantile Literary Series
      • First Thursday
      • Denny Lecture
      • Al Young Educator of the Year
      • Everyday Heroes
    • MOHAI Mercantile
    • Gourmondo at MOHAI
  • Exhibits
  • Events
  • Collections and Research
    • Collections Search
    • Themed Collections
    • Research Library
    • Image Ordering
    • Donate an Artifact
    • Curator’s Fellowship
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Membership at MOHAI
    • Gift Memberships
    • Corporate Support
  • Education
    • Field Trips
      • Self-Guided School Year Explorations
      • Creating Our Community
      • Cracking the History Code: Salish Stories
      • Cracking the History Code: Settling Around the Sound
      • Hands on History
      • Self-Guided Summer Field Trips
      • Homeschool Group
    • Portable Museum Program
    • Scholarships
    • Education FAQ
    • Primary Source Analysis
    • Online Curricula
    • Teen Programs
    • Idea Lab
    • Discovery Packs
    • Summer Camps
  • About
    • Annual Reports
    • The MOHAI Blog
    • Contact MOHAI
    • Opportunities
    • Leadership
    • Private Events
  • Donate
  • Tickets
  • Membership
HomeCollections and ResearchCollections Search

Collections Search

Explore stories in Northwest history through highlights from MOHAI’s collections. Search by keyword below or browse the entire online collection by entering the asterisk symbol (*). Filter your search by type of materials.

Download lower resolution images directly from an item page. MOHAI offers high-resolution digital reproductions of photographs and other materials from our collections for personal and professional use.

We have many more items in our collections and not everything you see online is on view at the museum. We have additional materials online at the University of Washington’s Digital Collections.

MOHAI Statement on Harmful Content

Search by Collection

Not finding what you are looking for?
Ask the MOHAI Collections Staff

95 results for: Great Depression

Share:
Image of Aerial view of Connecticut Street dock, Seattle, 1935
Photograph

Aerial view of Connecticut Street dock, Seattle, 1935

This aerial view of what is now Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, located just south of downtown, features docks that were owned by the Port of Seattle and utilized by shipping companies. Just north of the docks, at the left center edge of the frame, is what was then Seattle's largest Hooverville, a temporary and improvised shantytown populated by men left unemployed…
ID Number:1983.10.17702.16
Date:1935
Image of Aerial of Camp Cherry Valley, near Carnation, February 15, 1935
Photograph

Aerial of Camp Cherry Valley, near Carnation, February 15, 1935

Camp Cherry Valley was a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp located in the Snoqualmie Valley on land leased from Weyerhaeuser. In 1935, the Washington State Department of Welfare took over the camp and used it as a location to house and feed homeless men in the area. The men were also given jobs constructing public works. During WWII the camp…
ID Number:1983.10.17731.2
Date:1935
Image of Aerial of Ford Motor Plant from southeast, Seattle, 1932
Photograph

Aerial of Ford Motor Plant from southeast, Seattle, 1932

Photographer Charles Laidlaw made this view of the second Ford factory from about 800 feet above the Duwamish industrial area. Seattle's newest producer of Fords built only a few thousand cars before the Great Depression stopped the assembly line. The building was later used as a sales and service facility; in 1942 it was sold to the federal government. Caption…
ID Number:1983.10.18041.2
Date:1932
Image of Young men leaving Seattle for a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, April 14, 1937
Photograph

Young men leaving Seattle for a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, April 14, 1937

On April 13, 1937, eighty men reported to the Armory in Seattle on the first day of the spring enrollment for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The program, created by the federal government in 1933 to relieve unemployment during the Great Depression, hired young men to work on conservation projects in remote areas of the United States. In March 1937,…
ID Number:1986.5.1829.1
Date:1937
Image of Young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps receiving a physical exam, 1937
Photograph

Young men in the Civilian Conservation Corps receiving a physical exam, 1937

Part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Legislation, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a government work relief program that employed about 3 million men age 18 to 25 from 1933 until 1942. CCC jobs were generally manual labor, and focused primarily on the conservation and development of parks and other natural resources throughout the United States. Physical exams…
ID Number:1986.5.1829.2
Date:1937
Image of Young bugler at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, 1939
Photograph

Young bugler at a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, 1939

In 1933, during the Great Depression, the United States government created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a program intended to relieve unemployment. The quasimilitary program was open to American males between the ages of 17 and 23 who were in good physical condition. The men worked on a variety of conservation projects including planting trees, fighting forest fires, and constructing…
ID Number:1986.5.1830.1
Date:1939
Image of Buildings at a Washington state CCC camp, August 1939
Photograph

Buildings at a Washington state CCC camp, August 1939

In 1933, during the Great Depression, the United States government created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to help relieve unemployment. The CCC set up work camps in national parks and other remote areas of the country where the recruits planted trees, built roads and buildings and worked on a variety of other conservation projects.This 1939 photo shows the headquarters building…
ID Number:1986.5.1830.2
Date:1939
Image of Circle of children holding hands in a wooded clearing, 1939
Photograph

Circle of children holding hands in a wooded clearing, 1939

Young children participating in an educational program, likely lead by a Civilian Conservation Corps employee, in what is probably Mount Rainier National Park. Part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal Legislation, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a government work relief program that employed about 3 million men age 18 to 25 from 1933 until 1942. CCC jobs were…
ID Number:1986.5.1830.8
Date:1939
Image of Public employment office exterior showing men looking at listings, Seattle, 1936
Photograph

Public employment office exterior showing men looking at listings, Seattle, 1936

Signs in image include: Women's Division Room 108 County City Bldg.Men's Division Public Employment Office, City of Seattle, In Cooperation with U.S. Employment Service, Help Supplied -- No Fees.Handwritten on sleeve: Employment.Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): July 13, 1936.United States Employment Service also known…
ID Number:1986.5.2471.1
Date:1936
Image of Men looking at listings posted in the window of the Public Employment Office, Seattle, 1936
Photograph

Men looking at listings posted in the window of the Public Employment Office, Seattle, 1936

Writing on window in image: Women's Division Room 108 County City Bldg. Men's Division Public Employment Office, City of Seattle, In Cooperation with U.S. Employment Service, Help Supplied -- No Fees. Handwritten on sleeve: Employment Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): July 13, 1936United States…
ID Number:1986.5.2471.2
Date:1936
Previous 1 2 3 4 … 10 Next

Land Acknowledgement

MOHAI stands on the historic and contemporary lands and shores of the Duwamish, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, and other Coast Salish Nations. We acknowledge the forced displacement of Native Communities from this land while honoring the endurance of the Duwamish people who still live here.
Address: 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle WA, 98109
Phone: 206 324 1126
  • Plan a Visit
  • Directions and Parking
  • Accessibility
  • Group Tours
  • About

Sign up to Receive our Newsletter

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Copyright 2026, Museum of History & Industry. All Rights Reserved