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The ethnographic collection created by Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin provides a glimpse of the everyday life and cultural expression of people living through a particularly difficult period of American history, the Great Depression and Dust Bowl era. The motivation for the Todd/Sonkin expedition to document life in the FSA migrant camps of California arose from a combination of circumstances. Charles L. Todd held a longstanding interest in balladry, acquired during his undergraduate studies of English literature. He also had a more general interest in folk music. Todd held firmly to the premise that folksong was a form of journalism carried out orally. Ultimately, however, it was John Steinbeck's portrayal of the San Joaquin Valley migrant camps in a pamphlet entitled "Their Blood is Strong" that inspired him to investigate the camps firsthand.