The 1930's

 Home Page for The 1930's

Select from the right-hand menu '1930's CONTENT' specific class-graduation years.  Stories, pictures, scans, audio, video, and class-year specific content will be posted as it becomes available.

Decade overview

• While the Great Depression is felt at every level in the workforce, the period is one of great innovation and development of new materials and technology.
• In 1930 several plastics are introduced: I. G. Farben in Germany develops polystyrene; B. F. Goodrich Company invents polyvinyl chloride. These innovations begin to alter the shapes and colors of office tools such as adding machines and telephones.
• In 1930, American college students coin the term "rat race" to describe the world of work.
• In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt introduces the New Deal.
• In 1933, Frances Perkins becomes the first woman in the U.S. cabinet when Roosevelt names her Secretary of Labor.
• In 1934, the Social Security Act is passed in an effort to provide for the rapidly expanding number of retired workers.
• In 1935, the first class of women systems service workers graduate from IBM.
• Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People is published in 1936.
• The first reverberations of the death knell for carbon paper are heard in 1937 in the laboratory of Chester Carlson, inventor of the xerography process of duplication.
• In 1938 the Fair Labor Standards Act is enacted, banning oppressive child labor, setting the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, and the maximum workweek at 44 hours.
• In 1939, the first regular commercial flights across the Atlantic Ocean are instituted by Pan American Airlines.
• World War II begins in 1939.

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"Carbons to Computers: Historical Timeline 1930-1939 (text)." Smithsonian Education - Welcome. 1998. Smithsonian Education. 28 Dec. 2008 <http://smithsonianeducation.org/scitech/carbons/text/1930.html>.