Caroline Boa Henderson authored letters from her farm in Eva, OK that helped bring national attention to the plight of farmers in the Dust Bowl. Most of her letters, housed in the archives at Mount Holyoke, are written to her college roommate Rose Alden. Featured in this digital exhibiti is a letter Caroline wrote to Rose on May 29, 1939. In the 1930s, Henderson regularly published articles and a column in “Practicle Farmer,” “The Ladies World,” and The Atlantic Monthly.

In the fall of 2012, Caroline’s letters to Rose will be one of the primary sources used by Ken Burns, 71F in his PBS documentary The Dust Bowl. Interspersed with handwriting from Caroline’s letters to Rose, are moments from the 1936 documentary, “The Plow that Broke the Plains.”

Sources

Caroline Boa Henderson Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA

The Plow that Broke the Plains. Written and directed by Pare Lorentz (U.S. Gov’t Resettlement Administration, 1936)

Multimedia Curation

Sam Serafy