These 13 Candid Photos Show What Life Was Like In Missouri In the 1930s

Do you ever wonder what life was like way back when in Missouri? Long before the advent of the internet, smartphones, and even television? We’re fortunate to have photographs and videos to give us a glimpse into yesteryear. These 13 candid photos, for example, give us insight to what life was like in Missouri in the 1930s, just years before the U.S. entered World War II.

1. A mother cradles her baby as they seek refuge in a schoolhouse after a flood in Sikeston in January 1937.

2. A schoolhouse awaits pupils in LaForge in May 1938.

3. Farmers take a break during an auction to purchase soda in Sikeston in May 1938.

4. Children sit inside a windowless room in a house owned by a sharecropper in Osage in 1938.

5. A ferry from Tennessee arrives in New Madrid County in 1938.

6. A candy counter – brimming with such favorites as Baby Ruth and Butterfinger – is pictured in a La Forge shop in August 1938.

7. Children check out the movie posters outside of a theater on a Saturday afternoon in Steele (August 1938).

8. Cars arrive at the settlement at the Lake of the Ozarks, captured in May 1936.

9. Vehicles park in front of the post office and a general store in Hughesville in November 1939.

10. A grain elevator in Kansas City, Missouri, is pictured in November 1939.

11. A mother and her children, wife and children of a local tiff miner, relax in their home in Washington County in November 1939.

12. Farmers spread lime on the grass of their farm in Greene County in November 1938.

13. A woman looks out of her shack home, right near the railroad tracks, in Caruthersville in August 1938.

Which of these pictures are your favorite of life in Missouri in the 1930s? Join the conversation in the comments! Then, click here to fast forward a few decades for a glimpse into life in Missouri in the 1950s.

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These 13 Candid Photos Show What Life Was Like In Missouri In the 1930s

Beth Price-Williams

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