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Don’t be a Drip - Water Conservation Campaigns

Album Description

Many California counties are now on volunteer water conservation with the possibility, as things stay dry, of having mandatory restrictions. Science and government classes might explore past campaigns to control water usage. 

Collected in this Album are a few images showing the effects of a drought and in the case of World War II, eliciting public support through campaigns to save water. The images are good jumping off spot for students to do further research on conservation and to create campaigns of their own.

Some suggestions for educators:

  1. Use the posters and photographs to elicit student questions around historic droughts, campaigns and solutions.
  2. Challenge students to research and further investigate community and government response to drought.
  3. Encourage student participation by having them create posters, presentations or projects to provide information on conservation solutions.

Please contribute additional images or ideas to this Album.

  Drought   Water   Conservation 

Don't be a drip! Be patriotic ... Stop leaks ... Save water.

Teaching Notes

Students can animate historic water conservation posters to add a technology twist to a printed message.  Students might also update posters so they apply specifically to their communities and water conservation situations.  When students create they learn, not only about how to make something interactive, but also about the content they are working with.  Why was conserving water important in World War II? 

Your wartime duty! Don't waste water Do not use more water in the kitchen than is necessary / / Kerkam.

Teaching Notes

Have students update this poster with today’s norms and messages.

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/98516601/

Reference note

Summary: Poster for The New York City Department of Water Supply, Gas & Electricity for a campaign to conserve water, showing a woman cleaning a pan and preparing food.
Contributor Names: Kerkam, Earl, artist
Federal Art Project, sponsor
Created / Published: [New York] : NYC WPA War Services, [between 1941 and 1943]
Subject Headings: -  World War, 1939-1945
-  Water supply--New York (State)--New York--1940-1950
-  Conservation of natural resources--New York (State)--New York--1940-1950
Notes: -  F.H. La Guardia, Mayor - Department of Water Supply, Gas & Electricity - Patrick Quilty, Commissioner.
-  Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id: cph 3f05374 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05374

Your wartime duty! Don't waste water Do not use hose for washing your automobile. Do use water from a pail / / Kerkam.

Teaching Notes

Have students update this poster with today’s norms and messages.

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/98516602/

Reference note

Summary: Poster for The New York City Department of Water Supply, Gas & Electricity for a campaign to conserve water, showing a man washing his car.
Contributor Names: Kerkam, Earl, artist
Federal Art Project, sponsor
Created / Published: [New York] : NYC WPA War Services, [between 1941 and 1943]
Subject Headings: -  World War, 1939-1945
-  Water supply--New York (State)--New York--1940-1950
-  Conservation of natural resources--New York (State)--New York--1940-1950
Notes: -  F.H. La Guardia, Mayor - Department of Water Supply, Gas & Electricity - Patrick Quilty, Commissioner.
-  Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).
-  DCRM(G) example, 1.A1 - prescribed punctuation
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id: cph 3f05375 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05375

Your wartime duty! Don't waste water Do not let water run a long time to get a drink : Do keep water in icebox instead / / Kerkam.

Teaching Notes

Have students update this poster with today’s norms and messages.

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3f05376/

Reference note

Summary: Poster for The New York City Department of Water Supply, Gas & Electricity for a campaign to conserve water, showing a man drinking water.
Contributor Names: Kerkam, Earl, artist
Federal Art Project, sponsor
Created / Published: [New York] : NYC WPA War Services, [between 1941 and 1943]
Subject Headings: -  World War, 1939-1945
-  Water supply--New York (State)--New York--1940-1950
-  Conservation of natural resources--New York (State)--New York--1940-1950
Notes: -  F.H. La Guardia, Mayor - Department of Water Supply, Gas & Electricity - Patrick Quilty, Commissioner.
-  Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id: cph 3f05376 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05376

War industry needs water Protect production : Use it wisely.

Teaching Notes

Have students update this poster with today’s issues and conservation tips.

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/98518430/

Reference note

Summary: Poster promoting conservation of water for the war effort.
Contributor Names: Pearce, Glenn Stuart, 1909-, artist
Created / Published: [Philadelphia, Pa. : Federal Art Project, between 1941 and 1943]
Subject Headings: -  World War, 1939-1945--Economic & industrial aspects--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia
-  Water supply--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--1940-1950
-  Conservation of natural resources--Pennsylvania--Philadelphia--1940-1950
Notes: -  Date stamped on recto: Jan 21 '43.
-  Sponsored by Philadelphia Council of Defense.
-  Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress).
-  Hand-written on recto in pencil: Artist: Glenn Pearce.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: ds 07248 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.07248
cph 3f05600 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3f05600

Drought refugees. California

Teaching Notes

For some powerful drought images refer to   Tom Bober  ‘s album: Primary Sources and Picture Books: Dorothea Lange The Photographer Who Found the Faces of the Depression by Carole Boston Weatherford

And 

  Amara Alexander ’s album :Wind Erosion: Dust Bowl for effects. 

There are many more images and lesson ideas in our TPS Teachers Network. Type “drought” into the search box in the upper right.

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2017759653/

Reference note

Contributor Names: Lange, Dorothea, photographer
Created / Published: 1936 Feb.
Subject Headings: -  United States--California
-  Migrants--California
Genre: Nitrate negatives
Notes: -  Annotation on original negative jacket: DL.
-  Title and other information from caption card.
-  Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division.
-  More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi
-  Temp. note: usf34batch1
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: fsa 8b27087 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b27087

President Roosevelt greeted on tour of drought area. Near Bismarck, North Dakota

Teaching Notes

Students research how governments have dealt with droughts.

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2017761075/

Reference note

Contributor Names: Rothstein, Arthur, 1915-1985, photographer
Created / Published: 1936 Aug.
Subject Headings: -  United States--North Dakota--Burleigh County--Bismarck
-  Miscellaneous--Drought committees
Genre: Nitrate negatives
Notes: -  Title and other information from caption card.
-  Corresponding print in PRES FILE-Roosevelt, F.D.-in North Dakota.
-  Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.
-  More information about the FSA/OWI Collection is available at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsaowi
-  Temp. note: usf34batch1
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: fsa 8b28228 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b28228

President Carter's appointments - signing drought [relief] bill

Teaching Notes

Students research how governments have dealt with droughts.

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2017658411/

Reference note

Contributor Names: O'Halloran, Thomas J., photographer
Created / Published: 1977 April 7.
Genre: Film negatives--1970-1980
Notes: -  Title and date from log book.
-  Contact sheet available for reference purposes: USN&WR COLL - Job no. 34272-B, frame 17A.
-  Forms part of: U.S. News & World Report Magazine Photograph Collection.
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Digital Id: ppmsca 53235 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.53235

James Patterson, age 6, and Elizabeth Kent, age 7, young helpers in the drought relief campaign

Teaching Notes

Investigate how students have helped with drought campaigns.

Boy Scouts and their scoutmaster were valuable workers for the Red Cross in the drought relief work around Cleveland, Mississippi

Teaching Notes

Investigate how students helped in drought relief campaigns.

Columbia Basin, near Quincy, Grant County, Washington. August 14, 1939. Dry lands and abandoned farms

Teaching Notes

What happens when the land actually dries up due to lack of rainfall? We don't necessarily think of the Columbia Basin in Washington as a dry place, but by 1939, it had suffered years of drought. This document includes a newspaper description of the roles of the railroads and the government in attracting farmers to the region to raise wheat, how those farmers fell into debt, and what happened when "dry land farming" failed after years of drought. 

How could students compare this history with what is happening today? How might farmers in 1939 have reacted to the campaigns for water conservation? 

  dry land farming   

Reference link: http://www.loc.gov/item/2006682434/

Reference note

Summary: Caption information for Dorothea Lange photographs. Describes area of abandoned farms about 75 miles from Grand Coulee in the Columbia Basin. Also describes an ageing couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chris Ament, who remained on their farm.
Contributor Names: Lange, Dorothea.
United States. Farm Security Administration.
Created / Published: 1939 August 14.
Subject Headings: -  Abandoned farms--Washington (State)--Quincy--1930-1940
-  Water supply--Washington (State)--Quincy--1930-1940
-  Farmers--Washington (State)--Quincy--1930-1940
-  Columbia River Watershed--1930-1940
Notes: -  Title devised by Library staff.
-  Transfer; United States. Office of War Information. Overseas Picture Division. Washington Division; 1944.
-  Forms part of the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information photograph collection (Library of Congress).
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Digital Id: ppmsca 12507 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.12507
ppmsca 12508 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.12508