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How Shirley Temple Helped America Through the Great Depression

With her show-stopping talent and bouncy blond curls, Shirley Temple brought optimism and hope to Americans during the Great Depression. The cheerful child actor, one of the most famous movie stars of the 20th century, helped the nation through the 1930s. 

Shirley Temple in a scene from the movie “Stand Up and Cheer” (1934). Photo courtesy of Fox Film Corporation.

How did she accomplish this? Find out during an upcoming program at the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh. Dr. John Kasson will present the lecture The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America on Tuesday, March 16, at 7 p.m. The internationally recognized scholar will examine the child star’s popularity and its paradoxes in the context of the Great Depression. Admission and parking are free, and a reception follows each program. To register, call 919-807-7847.

Kasson has taught at UNC-Chapel Hill since 1971. He has received numerous honors, awards and fellowships. The author of several books, his research has been persistently concerned with the rich variety of American cultural expression in a dynamic society.

Kasson’s program is part of the lecture series Perspectives on History, presented by fellows from the National Humanities Center. Each year the National Humanities Center, located in Research Triangle Park, admits a select group of fellows, who pursue their work while contributing to the center’s environment of intellectual discourse. The series is sponsored by the N.C. Museum of History Associates.

Come early at 6 p.m. to tour In Search of a New Deal: Images of North Carolina, 1935-1941, an exhibit ofphotographs documenting daily life in rural North Carolina during the Great Depression. The exhibit features 50 Farm Security Administration photographs that provide a compelling and diverse portrait of a state coping with tough economic times. Complementing the exhibit, which was originally produced by Historic Oak View County Park in Raleigh, are Depression-era artifacts from the N.C. Museum of History collection.

Mark your calendar for this March 16 program at the N.C. Museum of History.

For more information about the Museum of History, call 919-807-7900.

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