The Pare Lorentz Film Center at the
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
launched a new animated video on FDR and the Dust Bowl
produced by Roosevelt great-granddaughter Perrin Ireland and
narrated by CBS News
correspondent Bill Whitaker
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Pare Lorentz Film Center at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum has
launched a new animated video on Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Dust Bowl created by Roosevelt great-granddaughter and visual storyteller Perrin Ireland and narrated by CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. The project was funded by a grant from the New York Community Trust.
Visit youtube.com/FDRLibrary to view the video online.
"FDR and the Dust Bowl" combines powerful animated visuals with stirring narrative to stimulate viewer engagement with important aspects of the Roosevelt story. This is the second video released as part of the Pare Lorentz Film Center's "Animate the Roosevelts" project. The first video -- focusing on Japanese American Interment -- was released in 2017.
The Dust Bowl was a man-made environmental disaster. It unfolded on the nation's Great Plains, where decades of intensive farming and inattention to soil conservation had left the vast region ecologically vulnerable. A long drought in the early and mid-1930s triggered disaster. The winds that sweep across the plains began carrying off its dry, depleted topsoil in enormous "dust storms." Dramatic and frightening, these storms turned day into night as they destroyed farms.
When FDR became President in 1933, he faced many challenges but saving America's farms was one of his most important and difficult tasks. His actions could be considered a blueprint for how a government should respond to an environmental disaster -- combining scientific research, community engagement, business incentives, and proven environmental policies including soil and water conservation programs.
President Roosevelt's efforts to help rural Americans pay their mortgages so they wouldn't lose their farms, plant trees to break the fierce winds, teach them new techniques to preserve their soil and conserve their water were all part of his vision for a fair and just America. One where the government helped people who needed help the most. While FDR is often credited with bringing the United States out of the Great Depression and leading the Allies to victory in World War II, his role as a great environmental champion is sometimes overlooked.
For additional information about this video please call Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745.
Designed by Franklin Roosevelt and dedicated on June 30, 1941, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum is the nation's first presidential library and the only one used by a sitting president. Administered by the National Archives and Records Administration since 1941, the Library preserves and makes accessible to the American people the records of FDR's presidency. The Roosevelt Library's mission is to foster a deeper understanding of the lives and times of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and their continuing impact on contemporary life. This work is carried out through the Library's archives and research room, museum collections and exhibitions, innovative educational programs, and engaging public programming. For more information about the Library or its programs call (800) 337-8474 or visit
www.fdrlibrary.org.
