What was the role of the large public sector in Madison’s Depression experience? How did this compare with earlier depressions? The nation was still in the grip of the Great Depression when Harold Hone took this picture in 1939, but the shoppers on South Pinckney Street appear to be prosperous. SHSW WHi(W821)58

On Saturdays when I was in high school a friend and I would walk downtown to go window shopping. This trip meant walking through the University campus, then up State Street to see all the small exciting shops and then around the Square where Manchesters, Barons, and other big department stores were located. We often lingered over some particular dress or skirt we saw in a window, but we rarely had any means to accomplish its purchase. In this way we kept up with the latest fashion trends and we felt quite cosmopolitan to be part of the downtown scene. Hallie Lou Whitefield Blum, 1995

Blum, Hallie Lou | Hone, Harold (Photographer) | Pinckney Street