You’ve Never Seen 1930s & 40s America Like This

I like to think of myself as rather familiar with the archives at the Library of Congress, but somehow I skipped over this album of 1,600+ colour slides from the 1930s and 40s, a time in history we’re so used to seeing only in black & white.  These photographs are so vivid, they feel as if they could have been taken yesterday.

Lead image: House, Houston, Texas, May 1943, photographed by John Vachon

Seed and feed store, Lincoln, Nebr, 1942, photographed by John Vachon

I’ll let the individual photographs (and their captions) speak for themselves, but they all come from a project commissioned by the Farm Security Administration between 1935-1944, which was tasked with documenting the challenges of rural poverty in an effort to combat the nationwide problem. Some of the more famous photographers hired for the project included Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange, whose iconic black & white image “Migrant Mother” became a symbol of the American Depression. But these brilliant colour photographs of day-to-day American life are for some reason much less well-known…

Worker at carbon black plant, Sunray, Texas, 1942, photographed by John Vachon

Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, C. & N.W. R.R., Clinton, Iowa, 1943 April, photographed by Jack Delano.

A cross roads store, bar, “juke joint,” and gas station in the cotton plantation area, Melrose, La, 1940 June, photographed by Marion Post Wolcott.

Chopping cotton on rented land near White Plains, Greene County, Ga., June 1941, photographed by Jack Delano

Living quarters and “juke joint” for migratory workers, a slack season; Belle Glade, Fla., 1941 Feb, photographed by Marion Post Wolcott, Marion Post.

4th of July celebration, St. Helena Island, S.C., 1939 July, photographed by Marion Post Wolcott, Marion Post.

4th of July celebration, St. Helena Island, S.C., 1939 July, photographed by Marion Post Wolcott, Marion Post.

A store with live fish for sale, vicinity of Natchitoches, La., 1940 July, photographed by Marion Post Walcott

Cutting the pies and cakes at the barbeque dinner, Pie Town, New Mexico Fair, 1940 Oct, photographed by Russell Lee.

School children singing, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940 Oct, photographed by Russell Lee. PS. See what Pie-Town looks like today.

Commuters, who have just come off the train, waiting for the bus to go home, Lowell, Mass, 1941 Jan, photographed by Jack Delano

Second-hand plumbing store in Brockton, Mass., Dec. 1940, photographed by Jack Delano

Boy looking at store window display of toys, 1941/ 1942

Natchez, Miss, 1940 Aug, photographed by Marion Post Walcott

Barker at the grounds at the Vermont state fair, Rutland, Sept 1941, photographed by Jack Delano

At the Vermont state fair, Rutland, “backstage” at the “girlie” show, Sept 1941, photographed by Jack Delano

Girls in potato sack dresses at the Vermont State Fair, Rutland, Sept 1941, photographed by Jack Delano

“Backstage” at the “girlie” show at the Vermont state fair, Rutland, 1941 Sept, photographed by Jack Delano.

On main street of Cascade, Idaho, 1941 July, photographed by Russell Lee

Delta County Fair, Colorado, 1940 Oct, photographed by Russell Lee.

Delta County Fair, Colorado, 1940 Oct, photographed by Russell Lee.

Courtyard of the Pan American Building, Washington, D.C, 1943 May, photographed by John Collier

Malaria poster in small hotel, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1941, photographed by Jack Delano

Street in San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1941 Dec, photographed by Jack Delano

Street scene, Christiansted, St. Croix island, Virgin Islands, 1941 Dec, photographed by Jack Delano.

Shepherd with his horse and dog on Gravelly Range, Madison County, Montana, 1942 Aug, photographed by Russell Lee.

At Beecher Street School, whose student body consists of half Americans of Italian descent and half of Americans of Polish descent, Southington, Conn. The Queen of the May was Emily Schwak, of Polish extraction; the King, Philip D’Agostino, of Italian, 1942 May, photographed by Fenno Jacobs.

Children on row house steps, Washington, D.C, between 1941 and 1942, photographed by Louise Rosskam

Annette del Sur publicizing salvage campaign in yard of Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif.

1942 by Alfred T Palmer

Painting the American insignia on airplane wings is a job that Mrs. Irma Lee McElroy, a former office worker, does with precision and patriotic zeal. Mrs. McElroy is a civil service employee at the Naval Air Base, Corpus Christi, Texas. Her husband is a flight instructor, 1942 August, photographed by Howard R Hollem

Women workers install fixtures and assemblies to a tail fuselage section of a B-17F bomber at the Douglas Aircraft Company, Long Beach, Calif. Better known as the “Flying Fortress,” the B-17F is a later model of the B-17 which distinguished itself in action in the South Pacific, over Germany and elsewhere. It is a long range, high altitude heavy bomber, with a crew of seven to nine men, and with armament sufficient to defend itself on daylight missions, 1942 Oct, photographed by Alfred T Palmer.

I definitely recommend going through the whole lot on Flickr.