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The CSC Eagle Newspaper – Chadron, NE
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The CSC Eagle Newspaper – Chadron, NE
Lifestyles

Sandoz Center exhibit explores Depression-era photographs

Guest Author
A photo of a man checking his mail in March 1979 is on display for the Dust Bowl exhibit in the Mari Sandoz Center. The pose is identical to a photo taken during the Dust Bowl period in the 1930s— Photo by Teri Robinson
A photo of a man checking his mail in March 1979 is on display for the Dust Bowl exhibit in the Mari Sandoz Center. The pose is identical to a photo taken during the Dust Bowl period in the 1930s— Photo by Teri Robinson

The Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center, located on 1000 Main Street in the Chadron State College campus, will have an exhibit on the Dust Bowl from October 13 until December 12.

The exhibit consists of photographs of people and landscapes from the Dust Bowl era, and even contains pictures from Nebraska.  The display also contains interviews and passages from people who lived through the catastrophe.

According to Director Sarah M. Polak, “We try to pick our exhibits based on their relevance to what the students are learning in class, as well as current global issues.”

The goal of the exhibit was to display the depths of the Great Depression, not in the photographs of big cities and “Hoovervilles’, but of farmers and ranchers from the area.

The Sandoz display features photographs of persons living on the plains during the Great Depression interspersed with snapshots of the same individuals posing in the identical landscapes in 1979.

 “Based upon growing concerns about climate change, the Rangeland Management program at CSC, and the celebration of Wilderness Act of 1964, which was passed by President Johnson, we felt this exhibit was appropriate for all parties.”  Polak said.

According to a Sandoz center press release, the center is open to the public 8-12 p.m. and 1-4 p.m. Monday thru Friday and 9-12 p.m. and 1-4 p.m. on Saturdays.

Both the faculty and members of the Sandoz center have a say in what should be displayed, according to Polak.

The wilderness act of 1964 originally set aside 10 million acres of land to be completely free from human harm.  According to the National Park Service website the act created “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

Currently, the Federal Government has allocated roughly 5% of the land in the U.S. to this act- about 110 million acres.

Editors Note: The original article omitted this detail: “The Sandoz display features photographs of persons living on the plains during the Great Depression interspersed with snapshots of the same individuals posing in the identical landscapes in 1979.”

The photo caption also contained this error, “A man checking his mail during winter after the Dust Bowl is on display for the Dust Bowl art exhibit in the Mari Sandoz Center.”
The photo was taken in March 1979, NOT during the 1930s Dust Bowl era.

The article has been modified to reflect these corrections. We regret these errors.