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Exhibition of Great Depression documents

A new exhibition of contemporary documents about the Wall Street Crash and economic crisis of the 1930s are now on display at the Modern Records Centre at the University of Warwick.

The collection includes a letter from Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald written days before the collapse of the second Labour government and political pamphlets which resonate today, such as 'The Bankers in the Dock'.

Whilst modern social security has hopefully made the starvation and hunger marches of the 1930s a thing of the past, these documents still highlight modern parallels in the global nature of the crisis, the arguments over how to deal with an economic depression (tax rises versus spending cuts), and concern over the laissez-faire nature of the banking system.

The original documents are all on display at the Records Centre and staff will be happy to extract them for researchers to study closer. Anyone who wishes to look at original documents outside the display cases must register with the Centre as a researcher by completing a form and providing a form of ID (e.g. library card).

An expanded version of the exhibition can be viewed online in the Modern Records Centre image gallery. Online versions of previous exhibitions are also available"

The exhibition will run until the end of the Summer Term (Sat 27th June) and the Centre is open weekdays only.

  • For more information on opening hours and visiting arrangements, check the Modern Records Centre website.

Bankers