Farm Security Administration photographs, 1939-1942, 1939-1942

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Summary

Creator:
Delano, Jack, Lee, Russell, 1903-1986, Schad, Tennyson, and Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990
Abstract:
The U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA) was formed in 1937 as part of social and economic reforms following the Great Depression. Collection comprises 18 color photographs taken from 1939 to 1942 by FSA photographers Jack Delano (8 prints), Russell Lee (7) and Marion Post Wolcott (3). Between 1937 and 1946, FSA/OWI photographers created over 175,000 black-and-white images, and only about 1600 color images using Kodachrome chromogenic film. Subjects in this collection are diverse and include sawmills in Georgia and Maine; a wheat field in Washington State, socializing at a rural fair in Pie Town, New Mexico; tobacco cultivation and a federal housing project in Puerto Rico; and a group of African Americans fishing near a cotton plantation in Mississippi. The prints are sized 10x13 and 11x14 inches, and were created in the 1980s by photograph collector Tennyson Schad using the dye transfer process. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.
Extent:
1.0 Linear Foot (1 box)
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.11703

Background

Scope and content:

Collection comprises 18 color photographs taken from 1939 to 1942 by Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers Jack Delano (8 prints), Russell Lee (7) and Marion Post Wolcott (3). The prints are sized 10 x 13 and 11 x 14 inches, with image sizes ranging from 6 1/2 x 9 3/4 to 10 x 13 inches. They were printed by photograph collector and gallery owner Tennyson Schad in the 1980s from original transparencies in the Library of Congress, using the dye transfer process.

Subjects include industrial settings such as a Pennsylvania steel mill and a sawmills in Georgia and Maine; rural settings such as a wheat field in Washington State and grain elevators in Idaho; and photographs of people, including a group of African Americans fishing near a cotton plantation in Mississippi, and a gathering of white men in a rural Kentucky town. One sequence documents people mingling, saying grace, and serving food at a rural fair in New Mexico. There are several photographs of tobacco cultivation and a federal housing project taken in Puerto Rico, where photographer Jack Delano settled shortly after his FSA assignment.

Together, these rare color images reveal the diverse subject and stylistic choices made by these notable photographers commissioned for the FSA project.

Biographical / historical:

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was created in 1937 under the Department of Agriculture, as part of the U.S. Federal government "New Deal" recovery programs following the Great Depression. Its main purpose was to minister to the needs of and improve the dire situation of impoverished rural people across the U.S.

In support of this effort, the FSA hired noted photographers and oral history interviewers to promote FSA programs and to document economic and social conditions and natural landscapes of the U.S. and its territories, as well as to illustrate the still-present vitality of the United States in the aftermath of the Depression. Led by economist/photographer Roy Stryker, the project ran until 1942, when the FSA was dissolved and subsumed under the Office of War Information (OWI). Many of the photographers hired for the FSA continued their work under the OWI.

Between 1937 and 1946, FSA/OWI photographers created over 175,000 black-and-white images, and only about 1600 color images using Kodachrome chromogenic film, at that time a relatively new technology. Among the FSA photographers were Jack Delano, Russell Lee, and Marion Post Wolcott, whose color images form this collection.

[Adapted from the Library of Congress FSA/OWI Color Photographs Collection website, accessed March 2019.]

Acquisition information:
The Farm Security Administration photographs were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 2018 and 2020.
Processing information:

Processed and described by Edward Coles and Paula Jeannet, March 2019.

Addition processed and described by Paula Jeannet, January 2021.

Accession(s) described in this collection guide: 2018-0185, 2020-0091.

Arrangement:

Arranged by photographer, and then by date.

Physical facet:
18 photographic prints
Dimensions:
11 x 14 inches
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. Images may only be used for educational, non-commercial purposes. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Farm Security Administration photographs, 1939-1942, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m15330