FORGOTTEN AMERICAN WISDOM  ·  THE ARCHIVE SERIES  ·  FIELD RECORD Nº 1

A FREE 10-PAGE READER’S EDITION

What Groceries Cost in 1936 — and What That Means Today.

More than fifty real prices from the U.S. government’s own record — butter, bread, eggs, coffee, a week’s wages — each one converted to today’s dollars. Print it. Put it on the refrigerator. Watch what happens when family visits.

No folklore, no “they say” — a citation for every figure, straight from Bulletin Nº 635.

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Cover of the booklet: What Groceries Cost in 1936, Forgotten American Wisdom Archive Series

10 PAGES · LARGE COMFORTABLE TYPE · MADE TO PRINT

Butter, per pound39.6¢$9.55
Bread, white, per pound8.2¢$1.98
Eggs, per dozen37.8¢$9.11

Three of the fifty-eight entries inside. Some will look familiar. Some will look upside down. All of it is real.

What’s Inside the Booklet

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A reader’s edition of Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin Nº 635 — the prices clerks wrote down in fifty-one American cities, every other Tuesday, all through 1936.

01

The Full Price Table

58 grocery prices — bread & flour, the meat counter, dairy & eggs, produce, the pantry shelf — each shown in 1936 cents and today’s dollars.

02

What a Week’s Pay Bought

The 1936 factory wage, the median family income, W.P.A. relief pay — and what one week of basics actually took out of a $21.56 paycheck.

03

The Real Price Was Time

A pound of butter cost 43 minutes of factory work. A dozen eggs, 41. The table nobody shows you — prices measured in worked minutes.

04

Every Source, Printed

A full citations page — bulletin, table, and page number for every figure, so you can check us against the government’s own record.

Booklet page 5, the dairy and egg ledger: each 1936 price in one column and the same item in today's dollars in the next — butter 39.6 cents a pound then, $9.55 now; eggs 37.8 cents a dozen then, $9.11 now.
PAGE 5 — DAIRY, EGGS & THE ICEBOX
Booklet page 7, What a Week's Pay Bought: the 1936 wage cards — a $21.56 factory week, the median family income, W.P.A. relief pay — set beside what a week of basics took out of them, each figure converted to today's dollars.
PAGE 7 — WHAT A WEEK’S PAY BOUGHT

Where the Numbers Come From

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Not memory. Not folklore. The record itself.

“These agencies distribute the schedules to approximately 2,000 food dealers on the date set for price collection… selected from those patronized largely by wage earners.” — BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, BULLETIN Nº 635, PAGE 10
  • ✓Every price transcribed from the original 1937 government bulletin — not from internet lists.
  • ✓Conversions use the Bureau’s own Consumer Price Index, 1936 → 2026.
  • ✓From the makers of the Forgotten American Wisdom channel — where every figure is checked before it’s spoken.
A grocery storefront in Greensboro, Alabama, photographed in 1936 for the Farm Security Administration: the windows are covered edge to edge in hand-painted signs quoting that week's prices by the pound.
GREENSBORO, ALABAMA, 1936 · WALKER EVANS, F.S.A. · LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Fair Questions

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Asked by careful people. We’d ask them too.

Is it really free?
Yes — free, complete, and yours to keep or print. It’s the first release of the Forgotten American Archive, and we’re building a readers’ list for the volumes that follow. The booklet is how we introduce ourselves.
Did a person actually research this, or is it AI-written filler?
The research is government bulletins, census tables, and Federal Writers’ Project archives — and the bibliography is printed inside the booklet, so you can check any figure yourself against the original source. We use modern tools to organize and draft faster; we don’t use them as a substitute for going to the record. If a number is ever wrong, it is ours to fix.
What format is it? Can I print it?
A PDF made for printing — standard letter paper, large comfortable type, ten pages. It reads just as well on a tablet or computer. No apps, no accounts, no subscriptions.
What happens after I sign up?
The booklet arrives in your mailbox within a minute or two. After that, a short letter from the Archive most weeks — one verified price or story — and first word (at a founding-reader price) when Volume I: What Things Cost, 1900–1975 is ready. Unsubscribe anytime with one click.

The Refrigerator Is Waiting.

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Get the table, print it, and let 1936 start the conversation.

FREE — SENT TO YOUR MAILBOX

Free, and yours to keep. No spam, unsubscribe anytime. We never sell or share your address.