In collaboration with the libraries of Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Mount Holyoke College, the American Library Association proposes a traveling exhibit and public programs for 40 libraries examining the history and legacy of the Dust Bowl. The project spotlights Ken Burns' film "The Dust Bowl," and brings to public view two little known Dust Bowl archives: online oral history interviews of Dust Bowl survivors at OSU, and letters and essays of Caroline Henderson, a Mount Holyoke alumna who farmed in Oklahoma throughout the Dust Bowl. Libraries will display the exhibit for 6 weeks and present at least 3 public humanities programs from a list provided. The project humanities themes include the interaction between humans and nature; the different ways human beings respond to adversity; and how people living in the Dust Bowl tried to understand their social, economic, and ecological environment.
THE DUST BOWL is a 2-part, 4-hour documentary film series that will explore a decade-long natural catastrophe of Biblical proportions and the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, a collective tragedy that nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. The series will be broadcast nationally in prime time on PBS in 2012, and will be accompanied by extensive educational outreach materials and a major promotional campaign to drive tune-in. In addition a web site will be created for the film to be housed on pbs.org.