Colorized images from 1929 Wall Street crash show bankers’ agony

Nearly 100 years after 1929 Stock Market Crash, also known as the Wall Street Crash, newly-colorized images have been released, which showcase the bankers’ agony and devastation as they realized that the stock market had plummeted and that they had lost most of their fortunes. On October 29, 1929 – 93 years ago – the country experienced the most severe stock market crash it has ever seen, which left thousands broke and kick started the Great Depression.

In the years following World War I, known as the Roaring 20s, America flourished – people flocked from farmland to the cities, the automobile industry was booming, jazz music rose in popularity, people started dressing differently, and a new lifestyle of wealth, prosperity, optimism, luxury, and partying took over. 

At the same time, America’s economy was thriving. According to History.com, the nation’s total wealth more than doubled between 1920 and 1929 – and many people took their new found fortunes and invested them into the stock market, which soon began to soar. However, things took a sharp turn in August 1929, when the Federal Reserve Bank of New York raised the interest rate from five to six per cent – which sparked panic in investors. 

This ‘led to hordes of people rushing to banks to withdraw their funds,’ History.com reported, but ‘investors were unable to withdraw their money because bank officials had invested it in the market.’ On October 28, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 13 percent, and the next day, it went down another 12 percent, an event that went on to be known as one of the worst economic crashes in US history. 

‘Billions of dollars were lost, wiping out thousands of investors,’ History.com reported. ‘In the aftermath of that event, America and the rest of the industrialized world spiraled downward into the Great Depression, the deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world up to that time.’ 

Now, as the country faces economic turmoil once again, new photos from the day the stock market crashed in 1929 have come to light, which show horrified men and women coming to grips with the fact that most of the money they had invested was now gone. Some of the photos show alarmed crowds outside of various banks across the country on the day of the crash, while others depict the aftermath of the event. 

One heart wrenching picture features bank president Walter Hudson trying to calm a panic-stricken mob that is making a run on his bank in 1932, and another powerful image shows men lined up around the block of a soup kitchen in 1930. 

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The time period after the stock market crash, known was The Great Depression, saw a major fall in the United States’ economy. Many people lost their homes; families were split up in search of work; and people often went hungry. Factories closed, mills and mines were abandoned, and business and labor alike were both in serious trouble. At the height of the Depression in 1933, 24.9 percent of the nation’s total workforce – 12,830,000 people – were unemployed. 

A combination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal – a law creating 42 new agencies that created jobs, allowed unionization, and provided unemployment insurance – and World War II eventually lifted the US out of the Depression in 1939. 

Some of the photos show alarmed crowds on the day of the crash, while others depict the aftermath of the event. Here, police are seen attempting to calm hunger marchers in Philadelphia in 1932.

Now, America appears to be heading towards a recession once again. The Commerce Department said in a report back in July that US gross domestic product shrank 0.9 percent in the second quarter, following a decline of 1.6 percent decline in the first quarter. 

President Joe Biden responded in a statement at the time, explaining that ‘it was no surprise that the economy is slowing down as the Federal Reserve acts to bring down inflation.’ ‘But even as we face historic global challenges, we are on the right path and we will come through this transition stronger and more secure,’ he added, citing strong consumer spending and a low unemployment rate as signs that the US economy remains robust.

At the height of the Depression, 24.9 percent of the nation’s total workforce were unemployed. Here, President Herbert Hoover is seen making a speech during the Great Depression.

Many people lost their homes; families were split up in search of work; and people often went hungry. Factories closed, mills and mines were abandoned, and business and labor alike were both in serious trouble.

A combination of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal and World War II eventually lifted the US out of the Depression in 1939.

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