History Research Project 1940 Census_green

A history project about people, places, and what remaining documents reveal of their lives…How to use a document to unravel a forgotten part of the past…

In January, 1941 the photographer Jack Delano took this photograph in Brockton, Massachusetts…

The building photographer Delano recorded for the government’s Farm Security Administration still stands.

Then (January 1941) and Now (Summer 2009)125 Pleasant St., Brockton, Massachusetts

THE SEARCH FOR CHANGE: What do we notice about the “then and now” photographs of our address?Notice that on the photo to our right here that we cannot get the same angle in the current Google map street view (previous slide and next slide) that FSA photographer Jack Delano got; an aerial view more than a street view. That informs us that there must have been an elevation, perhaps a building, on the diagonally opposite side of the street. Our next shot shows only a large parking lot and that is a physical CHANGE we observe.

The Brockton Building photographed in 1941 by Delano as it appears today (2009 photo); notice the open space to the right…

125 Pleasant St, Brockton, Mass.January 1941

View from corner of Pleasant and North Warren Sts., Brockton, over toward the open area - parking lot ? – in a present photograph…

Yet another angle…

HISTORY Research Project Using a photograph taken of a Brockton, Massachusetts

building in 1941 as a guide , we are going to locate a family in Brockton in 1940 and TELL A STORY ABOUT THEM;

Consulting a 1940 Brockton street directory we locate the “Quincy Market” of Brockton identified for us by a sign on the building in the 1941 photo; Google maps confirms the photograph as the same building Jack Delano photographed in 1941; We are ready to proceed…

Using the address we will gather information about a single mother (widowed) and her two daughters from the U.S. Census’s enumeration sheets, available from the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA;

We will also use various online resources to compose a short, descriptive story about this family. This is a demonstration of the project that you will undertake for this semester. HISTORY COMES ALIVE and we will write it!

Where did we get the address? From the sign on the Market in the photograph.

Jack Delano 1941 photo Look up store name in Brockton Street Directory 1941

With the market’s name we have a good chance to find the address in a city street directory; usually available in public libraries and now often ONLINE…

DOCUMENTS are materials from which we extract INFORMATION and evidence about a particular time.

Photos - like Jack Delano’s Quincy Market in Brockton, Massachusetts - are documents which we inspect carefully for historical data

Who were they; where did they go?The simple point to make in these “then and now” photographs is that we see change over time and as we observe that change we try to understand it. So we ask those questions of our documents – US. Census enumerator sheets (shown to the right) - that David Kiehn asked (when was the movie made?) of the San Francisco “Trip Down Market St.” film and Joe Manning asked of Addie Card (who was she and where did she go? )

Where will we get 1940 Census material?

So what do we do once we have the address we are looking for; in this case, 125 Pleasant St., Brockton, Massachusetts?

We go to the National Administration and Records Administration (NARA) and get the 1940 census enumerator sheets by copying and pasting this URL into your browser and select “get started”:

http://1940census.archives.gov/

How to Find the Reardon Family of Brockton in April 1940

On the Census for 1940 go to Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Brockton, Pleasant St. and the cross street is Warren. The Enumerator District is 12-16 and the page you want is page 6. THE REARDON FAMILY IS AT THE VERY TOP OF THE PAGE. I have included the URL (two slides down) but as it is very long it may, or may not, work in your browser. If it will not load, you will have to use these manual entry directions. Email me if you have a problem getting the sheet, either manually or with the URL.

The Reardon Family as shown in the enumerator sheet…

How to Find the Reardon Family of Brockton, Massachusetts in April 1940... On the Census for 1940 go to Massachusetts, Plymouth

County, Brockton, Pleasant St. and the cross street is Warren. The Enumerator District is 12-16 and the page you want is page 6. The Reardon family is at the very top of the page. I have included the URL but as it is very long it may, or may not, work in your browser. If it will not load, you will have to use these manual entry directions. Email me if you have a problem getting the sheet, either manually or with the URL.

URL:

http://1940census.archives.gov/search/?search.census_year=1940&search.city=Brockton&search.county=Plymouth+County&search.cross_street=Warren+Ave&search.page=1&search.result_type=image&search.state=MA&search.street=Pleasant#filename=m-t0627-01635-00422.tif&name=12-16&type=image&state=MA&index=6&pages=20&bm_all_text=Bookmark&searchby=location&searchmode=browse&year=1940

URL: U.S. Census of 1940 – copy and paste this URL to viewhttp://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/videos.html#video1

The Reardon Family125 Pleasant St., Brockton

What are we doing?We are going to inspect historical documents

and WRITE HISTORY.

We have the “how to” examples of David Kiehn and the Trip Down Market Street film as well as the research by Joe Manning and the Search for the Little Spinner – Addie Card, as examples. Here we will look at the 1940 census and a photograph taken of a corner market in Brockton, Massachusetts, a city about 20 miles south of Boston. Brockton was once an urban center most known for its shoe manufacturing facilities. The shoe manufacturing business had just begun to turn downward when this photo was taken in January of 1941. World War 2 was eleven months in the future.

Where did the Brockton market photograph come from?

The 1941 photograph of the property address in Brockton, Massachusetts was taken by a famous photographer of the Depression, Jack Delano. The property is located at 125 Pleasant Street, Brockton and that same building, slightly altered, is standing there today. The 1941 photograph was taken for the Farm Security Administration to assess and record the status of Americans employed in agricultural occupations. However, the scope of the work soon expanded to include Americans who left the farms for urban environments, (Brockton) and at the start of World War 2 the Farm Security Administration was merged into the office of War Information, the purpose of which was to photograph and publicize the American War effort

Then (January 1941) and Now (Summer 2011)125 Pleasant St., Brockton, Massachusetts

Google Map photo, Summer 2009

January 1941

In this example…

In our readings we are about where the 1940 census is concerned. The so-called New Era of the 1920s has come and gone, and left in its wake, the Great Depression. Our example here shows a widowed mother and her two children, Violet and Patricia. The census does not indicate this but this family is probably on government and/or private financial relief. The woman, Mary Reardon does not work, although she is only 50 but she has no listed occupation and no salary. We do not know why she is not employed. The youngest daughter, Patricia, is still in school [although she is older (17) and only reports a year of high school]. The oldest daughter, Violet, age 22, has been unemployed for a while but in 1939 she got a job with the Works Progress Administration. A description of that federal job program is available in the handout. The census, you will note in the enumeration sheet section on salary, asks the respondents how much they made in 1939. We want to take notice of this.

WHO ARE THE REARDONS OF PLEASANT ST, BROCKTON? We are going to take the census questions and apply some

other information and find out a bit about the three Reardons. Are they employed? If yes, how? How much do they make each week? And do they work each week of the year? Where do they work? Is that information on the census enumerator sheet? If it is not, where can we find it? (Think about this but if you have no immediate answer, that is alright, we will get to alternate sources of information.)

We want to know if they rent or own their home? How much is the rent? Look at the wages of the Reardons . Notice, as we

speculated above, Mrs. Reardon lists receiving money greater than $50 in income from a source other than salary. See her “yes” answer to the question in horizontal line 33 of the enumeration sheet.

What does it cost the Reardon’s in 1940 to eat?We don’t know if the Reardons’ shop downstairs at the Quincy Market, but let us assume that they do. How much does food cost in 1940?

I have included a chart (right) regarding food costs and a link so that you can access it yourself.

The chart estimates that grocery prices consume 18.4 percent of weekly income.

URL:http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364proj/sprg_97/hurley/hist2.html

Food Cost Comparison: 1940 to 2013

A pound of coffee on the chart (1940) from the previous slide cost 22 cents;

That same pound of coffee TODAY costs $8 (or more);

Three (3) pounds of chicken in 1940 is listed at a price of 90 cents (30 cents a pound);

That three pounds of chicken TODAY costs $5.50 per pound; or $16.50 for three pounds;

2013 prices are significantly higher, or are they?

What was a day’s pay in 1940?

What was a “good days pay”? It would need to be at least $26.70 based on the grocery chart from the earlier slide. The next slide shows another chart regarding wages. Does this square with the Reardons? Or anyone really? If not, why not? If yes, why? Look at your subjects for research with this same wage criterion. How are they doing against this standard report of wages? Up, down, or about the same?

NOW LET’S SEE WHAT WE CAN DO WITH OUR RECENT ACQUAINTANCES; THE REARDONS OF PLEASANT ST. BROCKTON. The Reardon Family lived at 125 Pleasant St, Brockton

Massachusetts in April 1940. They were a family of three. Both girls had attended one year of high school. Patricia is age 17 and Violet is 22. Violet was not employed until early in 1939; before that she had been unemployed for a very long time. As it is now she is working as a recreation leader for the WPA which is the Works Progress Administration, a federal employment program. Patricia would be 90 years old today (2013)

Violet’s mother, Mary Reardon, a widow, was not employed and did not report an occupation. Mrs. Reardon has but an eighth grade education. She did tell the enumerator though that she did receive money in excess of $50 in 1939 from a source other than personal income or salary. This may be relief, either government sponsored or private sponsored. There is not any indication of the source. It is fair to speculate that there is not substantial wealth to draw upon at the Reardon household.

The Reardons’ resources…

The only reported income is that of the oldest daughter, Violet. She reports income for 40 weeks of just over $600. That would work out to be about $15 a week. This is just over half the amount listed ($26.70) as the average 1940 wage on the “grocery chart” (earlier slide). Assuming the cost of groceries at about $4.90 per week according to the chart, and knowing the rent ($24 each month listed on census sheet, or $8 per week), and that no other member reports a cash income, we assume for the moment that Violet appears to be the sole breadwinner and that about $13 each week is spent on food and rent, and that leaves $2 for other expenses. We do not know if the Reardon’s have a telephone, but we assume that they must pay for electricity.

The Reardons of Brockton on the Eve of World War 2 – April 1940

The Reardon’s are poor and feeling the economic burden of the Great Depression quite severely. It is also safe to assume that they do not have access to an automobile and must rely on public transportation.

The future does not look bright either. Violet Reardon has only a first year high school education and she was hired as a “recreation leader” by the Works Progress Administration, or WPA, which she lists in response to the 28th and 29th census questions on occupation and industry? Patricia Reardon lists herself as a student, but at age 17 she has only completed the first year of high school. Mary Reardon, the mother of Violet and Patricia, has only an eighth grade education.

This is a snapshot view of the Reardons, an American single parent and her two daughters on the eve of World War 2.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT: find your own Reardons, and describe them to me and the class…

Each member of the class will use his or her computer to construct a short narrative about their topic, the subject that resides at the address you have chosen. That narrative should be similar to the draft narrative demonstrated here on these slides about the Reardons’ of Brockton. The more creative the use of documents and resources you describe, the better your grade. If you have a difficulty, or hit a dead end, contact me immediately. Most of your initial information will rely on facts from the enumeration sheets, the next step is to obtain facts that can be established separately such as the photograph here of the building in Brockton, and how we found the address. This is only one example, there are lots of other ways, and documents, that will “fill in the blanks” for your research. HAPPY HISTORY HUNTING.

One last look at the Reardon’s home during a January snowstorm, 1941

Street corner, Brockton, Mass.Jack Delano, photographer Title: Street corner. Brockton,

Massachusetts

Creator(s): Delano, Jack, photographer

Date Created/Published: 1941 Jan.

Medium: 1 negative : safety ; 3 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches or smaller.

Rights Advisory: No known restrictions. For information, see U.S. Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black & White

Repository: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division Washington, DC 20540