Rare color photographs of the era that defined a generation

[FLPanhandle]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388179/Rare-Library-Congress-colour-photographs-Great-Depression.html

It was an era that defined a generation. The Great Depression marked the bitter and abrupt end to the post-World War 1 bubble that left America giddy with promise in the 1920s. Near the end of the 1930s the country was beginning to recover from the crash, but many in small towns and rural areas were still poverty-stricken. These rare photographs are some of the few documenting those iconic years in colour. The photographs and captions are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color. The images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, shed a bleak new light on a world now gone with the wind.


Full plates: Homesteader and his children eating barbeque at the New Mexico Fair in Pie Town, New Mexico, October, 1940



Like a hobbit house: Garden adjacent to the dugout home of homesteader Jack Whinery, in Pie Town, New Mexico, September 1940


Distributing surplus commodities in St Johns, Arizona, October 1940



Library of Congress - I wonder if the Republicans will just auction it off.

[RKP5637]

1. Recommend!!! n/t

[TrogL]

2. It's the era of really great hats

[trud]

50. hats

That was my thought too.

Some of those kids in the first photo are probably still alive.

[nonperson]

3. "The images shed a bleak new light on a world now gone with the wind"

I disagree. The images shed a bleak new light on the present.

[Horse with no Name]

9. There is one difference

the poor don't see their plates full.

The poor don't have farms to grow crops so that they can have full plates.

My Grandma told me that during the Depression if someone showed up at the back door hungry, you fed them. What do you think would happen these days if someone hungry showed up at a backdoor?


Trust me when I say that under the same financial circumstances that caused the bank failures, our people will be hungry. Hungry people can be quite dangerous.

[nonperson]

13. You're right Horse

I heard the similar stories from my mother. Everybody that had a piece of land had a garden and people did their best to feed the hungry.

Now we only feed the rich.

[femrap]

23. During the Depression, my mother grew up on

a farm so she never went hungry....but people who lived in town, did.

My grandmother always fed those who came to her house. She sat him at the table with the rest of the family.

Today, we have been instilled with Fear and/or Greed....not good emotions. When did 'Sharing' become a bad thing? Something done only by a 'chump?'

The world is not a friendly place today. Makes me sad.

[midnight]

47. In parts of this country if you feed/give money to the poor it's illegal...

I think a city in California, and Denver. California law no feeding... Denver law no giving money... Now the one in Denver says if you are homeless and caught with money they can give you a ticket... Can't remember the amount of the ticket... But it makes no sense to give a man/women/child who is homeless a ticket...

[femrap]

53. Our nation has become so

cruel...evil, in fact. And yet the nation insists it is 'Christian.' Just makes me want to :hide:

[bobbolink]

68. You are right... except that it is much more widespread... too much to post here.

The Criminalization of Homelessness is immoral, but We, The People are allowing it to happen.

I had a photo of a man in Orlando who was arrested with his church group for feeding homeless people, but that photo seems to have been taken down. :( He was holding a sign saying "I feed homeless people and all I got was this lousy summons."

Here are a couple of other examples:






And on a related note, many cities are spending money to have designed and made benches which make it uncomfortable to sit for any length of time, and impossible to lay down:


All of that looks reminiscent of this:

[Chorophyll]

55. The thing is though, that in the 1930s this country was

largely agrarian. Huge chunks of it were farmland; the suburbs where most of us live didn't exist. We think of the 1930s as being the 20th century, but in a great deal of the country it was more like the the 19th. Only in large cities would you find anything like a soup kitchen or a shelter. There was really no social safety net until FDR managed to set it in motion, and it didn't spring up overnight. There were no food stamps, and no supermarkets to use them in. If you lost your money and were driven off your land, you were shit out of luck. Poor children could not get discounted or free meals in school cafeterias. Most schools didn't even have cafeterias, and who even went to school on a regular basis but rich kids or kids who lived in towns?

What I'm saying is, I don't think we want to go back to a time in which we had to invite strangers in for meals. It's a lovely thing to do, and if you want to do it, go for it! But if we're forced to do that just to keep people from starving to death, it will mean that we've allowed the GOP to dismantle everything that we've built up since the Depression and effectively turn us into a Third World country.

Not something to romanticize.

/rant

[Horse with no Name]

61. Very important points you make here--and certainly deserving of their own OP

"What I'm saying is, I don't think we want to go back to a time in which we had to invite strangers in for meals. It's a lovely thing to do, and if you want to do it, go for it! But if we're forced to do that just to keep people from starving to death, it will mean that we've allowed the GOP to dismantle everything that we've built up since the Depression and effectively turn us into a Third World country."


:applause: :applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause::applause:

[Chorophyll]

64. Hey, thank you!

I thought about doing an OP but I'm too freakin' lazy. But hey, you can do one and say I inspired you. :evilgrin:

Seriously, thanks. I don't think I've ever received applause 'round these parts. :cry:

[bobbolink]

69. What you are saying is that there is good and bad in just about everything.

While we don't want to go back to pre-safety net times, it WAS much better when we all lent a hand to each other.

Too many people now labor under the misapprehension that ALL needs are taken care of, if you just make the effort to go after it. :( Of course that is wrong, but that is what people think.

Somehow, we need to go back enough to help each other out in emergencies, but have a safety net that keeps emergencies from becoming chronic.

And, for you, dear Chorophyll,
:applause: :yourock: :pals::applause: :yourock: :pals::applause: :yourock: :pals::applause: :yourock: :pals::applause: :yourock: :pals:

[Chorophyll]

71. Thanks! And of course I didn't mean to suggest that we shouldn't

help each other out in direct ways!

Also, I don't feel like I rock that much, but I will accept your assessment. :)

[bobbolink]

72. No, you didn't suggest that at all. Your words ring true, and just gave me a moment of graphic

clarity about how so many things have both the pros and cons, and we often see only one or the other. Your words were very thought-provoking. :applause:

And I was provoked. :rofl:

"Also, I don't feel like I rock that much, but I will accept your assessment."

Here, rock THIS:



:hi:

[Chorophyll]

73. Ha! Thanks.

:hi:

[femrap]

75. Don't you see that

Repugnants are getting rid of the 'social net?' No more SS, Medicare....maybe they'll keep food stamps so people don't riot, but given the droughts and floods, food is going to be SCARCE and VERY EXPENSIVE.

People will HAVE to cooperate so to stay alive. I'm not romanticizing anything...I don't know what gave you that idea. I wrote down the facts of my family's life.

Wow...your post is extremely insulting....and naive.

:wtf:

ETA: There is NOTHING romantic about hunger.

[Chorophyll]

77. Huh?

"Don't you see that Repugnants are getting rid of the 'social net?"

Yeah. I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I said. It didn't exist during the Depression and it's being dismantled now. I apologize if I insulted you with my remark about "romanticizing" the 30's; that wasn't my intention. But if you find me naive I think you mis-read what I wrote.

:hi:

[bobbolink]

58. You are right. My grandmother brought people in and sat them at the table.

She didn't just give them a sandwich and send them on their way... she fed them like real human beings.

And, my grandmother wasn't a very nice person...yet, she treated others in need with kindness.

What have we become?

[colorado_ufo]

34. My mother told me the same thing.

Grandma have five little children, and money was beyond tight, but she could always find a sandwich if a hungry man stopped at the door, looking for work.

[HillbillyBob]

49. My great grand parents on both sides were dirt poor

in WV and Western Md, they had 'dirt' farms, subsistence, they at least owned some acres (painstakingly paid off) that they could eat. Maybe not fancy but they ate. I'm talking between 15 and 40 acres. They cut wood from their own land to work or heat with too.

[Scuba]

4. K&R Thanks for posting. n/t

[8 track mind]

5. I feel as if I'm looking

At my ancestry. Chilling.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

6. I am in love with this one. It's a real Rosie the Riveter.

[xchrom]

7. i love that she has her nails done. nt

[xchrom]

8. recommend

[kentuck]

10. Those are beautiful photographs

I clicked on the link to see the rest.

[Adsos Letter]

11. K&R! More photos and background essays about the people pictured, here:

http://www.awesomestories.com/history/great-depression/color-photos

[FLPanhandle]

12. That's a much better link

Added in the stories too. thanks!

[dixiegrrrrl]

56. I knew I could count on you for a great link, Adsos.

:hi:

[bobbolink]

67. Some of the text is really poignant

" The "problem" was that people who both farmed and worked in light industry were not eligible for assistance from rural relief programs. According to an FSA supplemental file, "the social effects of extending assistance to this 'part-time' farmer group is of utmost importance," since these farmers were "sound citizens . . . not susceptible to social agitators." If Delano could put a human face on people who moved back and forth between industry and farming, it might bring governmental attention to their economic plight."

How much we haven't learned in all the intervening years!

Someone needs to do a photo collection now, too..... however, I don't think the level of compassion is such that it would do much good.

:cry:

[PatSeg]

14. Amazing photos

Thank you for posting.

[postulater]

15. I'd live in that hobbit house.

[FLPanhandle]

16. Probably nice and cool w/o the need for A/C

Modern homes are almost unlivable without spending lots of energy on Home heating/air.

[bobbolink]

70. Except adobe. ^_^

[glinda]

38. I was just thinking that also. Love it.

[trud]

51. hobbit house

Not to not be sensitive to this but I love that house too.

[Bunny]

17. Wow - very nice.

Thanks for posting.

[pamela]

18. mmmm...Pie Town

I read an interesting article about Pie Town the other day. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/pietown.html?device=ipad&c=y There is also a link in that article for more pictures by Russell Lee, the man who took the top two pics you posted.

It's weird because I had never heard of Pie Town before and now I've clicked on three articles in less than a week that were about, or mentioned, Pie Town. It's making me want to go there. (it's also making me want pie.)

[FLPanhandle]

19. Great link

The old General Store looks so cool. Wish I could walk in there.

I should have had more than a small salad for lunch. Now I want pie too.

[joeybee12]

20. The top one with the little boy looking to Dad breaks my heart...knr

[lunatica]

21. These are great!

I love that link.

[DearAbby]

22. thank you so much for posting this

I love history, and I love looking at photographs of years gone by. Look into their faces, their eyes, knowing today the hardships these people had to go through. Yet there is a kind of pride, rugged individualism. They had FAITH in AMERICA. Faith that is sorely slipping these days.

K&R

[JI7]

24. i always enjoy looking at these old pics

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. This baby girl may very well be alive. She'd be 73, give or take a year.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

26. Can anyone find this spot at Google Maps?

Louise Rosskam. Shulman's market, on N at Union Street S.W. Washington, D.C., between 1941 and 1942. Reproduction from color slide. LC-USF351-633. LC-DIG-fsac-1a34421. FSA/OWI Collection. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (43)

[NYC Liberal]

29. Someone said this is it:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=15396068212549198445,38.874667,-77.018784&q=38.874676,-77.018784&ie=UTF8&ll=38.874693,-77.018784&spn=0.001884,0.005021&t=h&z=18&om=0

(on http://www.flickr.com/photos/8623220@N02/2179179372)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

31. It is. They eminent-domained the whole thing and tore it down:

http://www.shorpy.com/node/117

Compare & contrast http://imgur.com/lsz5q and http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=15396068212549198445,38.874667,-77.018784&q=38.874676,-77.018784&ie=UTF8&om=0&ll=38.877303,-77.019439&spn=0.016203,0.042272&z=15

[Snotcicles]

27. Talk about in the middle of nowhere. nt

[NYC Liberal]

28. Thousands more of these at the LOC's Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/sets/72157603671370361/

These are great because people have added annotations to the photos.

[murielm99]

39. The slide show is beautiful. n/t

[Skidmore]

30. My mother used to pick up surplus commodities during lean times

at the distribution point. There was more than a few times that beans, dried milk, cheese, oats, and cornmeal staved off hunger in our home.

The difference between then and now is that there is no surplus for our own citizens in a time of need.

[donheld]

32. Could it be that it was all so simple then, or has time rewritten every line

If we had the chance to do it all again, would we?

[WatsonT]

33. "If we had the chance to do it all again, would we?"

Apparently not. We have the option to live like that and very few people do.

[colorado_ufo]

35. Could we?

Memories . . .

[ErikJ]

36. "Can I finish eating my dog?"

I read a Great Depression story online a yr or so ago about how a woman was being evicted from her home by the police. When they got in she was in the process of cooking her dog in the oven and asked if she could wait until she was done. I tried googling it recently and couldnt find it.

[trud]

52. dog

I'd cook part of my arm for the dog before I'd do that.

[Scottybeamer70]

37. WOW......at my age.....

I remember a lot more of those days than I care to I think. I know we were dirt poor, but I don't
ever remember going hungry..........might have......just don't remember it. I do remember some of
the shacks we lived in. How my parents managed with 5 kids, I will never know!
Thanks for the pics........brings back a lot of memories!

[pezDispenser]

40. Thank you, I really enjoyed those.

[Arugula Latte]

41. I've seen those photos before and among the striking things is

the lack of obesity. Wow, things have sure changed.

[Frisbee]

42. Give it a little more time...

we'll get there, though not by choice.

[myrna minx]

43. K&R n/t

[Hubert Flottz]

44. People were still coming for food here in West Virginia up into...

the 1960s. The "recoveries" are like everything else here, slow in coming.

[Javaman]

45. Wait a second, I thought the whole world was black and white prior to 1939?

Amazing photographs.

[Auggie]

46. A reminder how cool hats are

[BadtotheboneBob]

48. My Mom's 'Feed Sack' dresses

It was just a few days ago that my Mom, a.k.a. The Old Nan, was telling an anecdote about when she was a girl on the farm in the 30's her mother made her dresses from the soft patterned cloth that chicken feed came in. The feed dealers purposely used such cloth sacks so to be re-used as hand made clothing. The bags came in all manner of colors and patterns. No central heat, hand-pumped water, wood stove for cooking and an out-house. Farm life in mid-Michigan in the 30's...

[sabrina 1]

74. That's a nice story and welcome to DU.

[TexasEditor]

54. These are Great Photos, but not of The Depression...

Dust Bowl? Lines at Soup Kitchens? Starving families? Shantytowns? These are fine photos, but they're not really of the Great Depression.

[JustAmused]

57. Also look

You might want to look up "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men". The photos in that book are by Walker Evans, and the stories by James Agee.

In the summer of 1936, during the Great Depression, Agee spent eight weeks on assignment for Fortune with photographer Walker Evans, living among sharecroppers in Alabama. While Fortune did not publish his article, Agee turned the material into a book entitled, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941). It sold only 600 copies before being remaindered. Agee left Fortune in 1939.

The photos are B&W, and are exceptional.

[bobbolink]

59. Having grown up in northern New Mexico, I'm wondering where Pie Town was.

Those are great photos -- Thanks for posting!

Did you happen to notice if they are copyrighted or in the public domain?

[Horse with no Name]

62. Here you go

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_Town,_New_Mexico

[bobbolink]

65. That is really cool, thank you! It is in a part of New Mexico that wouldn't be on my "normal path",

so no wonder I wasn't familiar with it.

At least it hasn't had so much attention that it got "gentrified"!!

thanks! :yourock:

[FLPanhandle]

63. All Library of Congress photos, so should be public domain.

[bobbolink]

66. You may be right, but I don't think so. I remember coming across some that said it may or may not

be copyright protected.

I am doing so much looking for the graphics I need and don't have extra time to chase them all down. The copyright issue can be a tricky one.

Here is a photo from the Dust Bowl era that really got to me:

[Bryn]

60. Wonderful pictures!

They all are amazing. Disappearing culture, too :(

Thank you for sharing!

[Shagbark Hickory]

76. You had me at "Pie Town" n/t