Lincoln Hall Project
Surviving the Crash
Weathering the Storm
Coping with Less
Students made do with little, but as Beth Olwin Dawson, class of 1933, told U of I Archives researchers in 2001, “There wasn’t a lot of money, but then things didn’t cost a lot either.” You could see a movie for 35 cents (10 cents on Sunday), enjoy a dinner out for 50 cents, or go to a dance for $2. Round-trip train fare to Chicago was $3. Still, expenses were cut at every opportunity. Some students made and repaired their own clothes. Free entertainment was popular. The main library reported a 20 percent increase in patrons during the Great Depression. Students also trained for high-wire acts, juggling, trapeze, and other events for the annual Interscholastic Circus, a popular draw in the spring semester.
Dealing with Differences
In some ways campus was a fractious place during the Great Depression. Former students reported tension between Jewish and Christian students, Greeks and independents, and blacks and whites. Yet others found campus a place of refuge. Albert Spurlock, a black student athlete from the class of 1938, told U of I Archives researchers that discrimination was relatively mild on campus compared to the outside world. Anxiety about racial discrimination and bread lines prompted him to enroll in graduate school after earning his undergraduate degree. “I enjoyed all of my years at Illinois,” he said, “and hated to face the world.”