Color photos of Depression-era American small towns

The Denver Post collects some of the Library of Congress's best color photos from the early 1940s, chronicling Depression life in small towns.

These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943 (Thanks, Tony!)

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MORE: economics • happy mutants • History • photos • public domain • submitterator

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http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis

I Google street-viewed the #57 Dillon, Montana one some time ago. Some of the nicer aspects of the architecture were gone, but the corner was still findable
Alpacaman

If a photo has notches in it at the top (like the one above) it was taken on large format (ie at least 4×5 inch) film, the notches are so you can tell which way the emulsion is facing in the dark for loading purposes. Consequently, any photos with the notches are almost certainly posed (large format cameras are not very good for candid work – it has been used for press work and photojournalism in the past with graflex cameras, but the unobtrusive thing doesn’t work very well, additionally, I am willing to bet that early colour slide film was very slow, necessitating a tripod).

In the case of a portrait (as above) it can’t be candid anyway. In fact, the above paragraph has almost no bearing on the photos in the link, they do not pretend to be candid, they are honest and in many cases beautiful photos. I just though it would be fun to share some technical info, and shed some light on the cameras used ( like this )
But really, damn, some of those are poignant.
- Guest
  
  Obviously these were taken in a portrait studio, and the outdoor shots taken with advance notice, so everyone could put on their finest dust-encrusted ensembles.
  
  Or, you, know, maybe there is more than one workable definition of candid.
  - Alpacaman
    
    You may have missed my point, I wasn’t trying to accuse these of being staged or inauthentic – I have little doubt that these photos are taken as they were found.
JhmL

Beautiful. Bowie’s ‘Young Americans’ started playing in my head immediately though. Damn you, Trier! *shakes fist*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFudBQcplj4
V

Reading ‘The Worst Hard Time” right now, about families who lived through the Dust bowl in the western Great Plains – Intimate stories of people who stayed through those times.

http://www.amazon.com/Worst-Hard-Time-Survived-American/dp/0618773479/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326125425&sr=1-1
retepslluerb

Err… I though it was general consensus that the great depression was from1929 to 1939? I’d alway play 1939 to 1943 as WW II era.

Good photos, though I think Boing Boing linked to them before.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  I didn’t want to be that guy, but I’m also positive that these have been year in the past year.
  
  Worth a second look at any rate.
  - retepslluerb
    
    Actually, it was in 2010:
    
    http://boingboing.net/2010/08/04/the-depression-in-co.html
    
    I knew I had seen that couple before when I looked at the photos.
- http://twitter.com/BadgerBeth Beth Cravens
  
  Actually the depression stretched on in rural areas that were hit the hardest by drought and erosion.
  - digi_owl
    
    And likely only noticed the war because of the local sons being drafted.
mccrum

Government sponsored art photography a priceless trove to future generations? Bah! More like fancypants fru fru artists who can’t get a real job without handouts!
The Thompson Five

I wonder when the New Deal is going to get around to Brockton? It looks worse now than it did then.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Canton stole Brockton’s New Deal.
xzzy

All these pictures are available off the Library of Congress website, plus more. You can easily lose an afternoon typing in the names of various cities and geographical features around the country seeing what’s available.

Obviously color photos are relatively rare, but there are mountains of digitized black and white photos.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  If anyone knows of something like this for the UK I’d love to know about it.
  - benher
    
    Depression era CCTV?
http://twitter.com/hughstimson Hugh Stimson

I’ve run into the “Couples at square dance” photo a couple of time now. It punches me in the face every time.

http://extras.denverpost.com/archive/captured.asp#photo13
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  If they’re square dancing, they’re doing it wrong. They’ve got the sweating down pat, though.
digi_owl

The more things change, the more they stay the same.