It’s difficult to overstate the intensity of the heatwave that gripped much of the US in July and August of 1936. Eleven states including North Dakota experienced their highest-ever temperatures that sizzling summer. Many of these records remain unbroken or were broken only by our frequent twenty-first century heatwaves.

In the spring of 1936, Arthur Rothstein had documented horrific Dust Bowl conditions in the southern Great Plains. As summer advanced, he drove north into the scorching heat on assignment for the US Resettlement Administration. An official in the agency’s Washington office wrote to him on July 14, “Your decision to go into the drought area is [very good news].” The letter adds a few supplementary details to his assignment. “[Be] on the lookout for these pictures (1) Livestock needing water. (2) Needy families—people evacuating. (3) Pictures of children. (4) Crops stunted, burned up. (5) Farms closed down.” Rothstein found those images, plus one more that satisfied a final request. (6) “[Show people] going to or coming from church.”