The New Deal

Photographs, posters, oral histories, and music recount how Federal programs sought to end the Great Depression


This Library of Congress Student Discovery Set is here to put history into your hands. It brings together historical artifacts and one-of-a-kind documents from the collections of the Library of Congress. Interactive tools let you zoom in for close examination, draw to highlight interesting details, and make notes about what you discover. There's no single right answer, only new discoveries to be made.


In July of 1932, in the midst of the greatest economic crisis in U.S. history, Franklin D. Roosevelt accepted the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, promising "a new deal for the American people." That promise became a series of relief, recovery, and reform programs designed to provide assistance to the unemployed and poor, revive the economy, and change the financial system to prevent another depression. Photographs, posters, oral histories, and music recount how Federal programs sought to end the Great Depression.


This set is intended for open-ended primary source analysis by students. A Teacher's Guide with background information, teaching ideas, and additional resources is available on the Library's Web site for teachers, loc.gov/teachers.