A Sign for a Woody Guthrie Concert at the Shafter Farm Labor Camp

The sign read: By Special Request, Sunday 2pm, Woody and His Guitar, Singing His Own Songs, Songs of the Common People, Dedicated to Skid-Road and Dust Bowl Refugees.

The Shafter Camp, near Bakersfield, California, was one of a series set up by the federal government’s New Deal agricultural agency the Farm Security Administration, to house farmer’s fleeing the Dust Bowl. Woody Guthrie performed for farm workers in federal camps and other temporary shelters across the country.

Image from Seema Aiseen Weatherwax Photographs, Stanford University Libraries Special Collections.

View the exhibit Seema Weatherwax for related images.