Historical Portrait
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives
Archive record
The photographs of the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection form an extensive pictorial record of American life between 1935 and 1944. This U.S. government photography project was headed for most of its existence by Roy E. Stryker, formerly an economics instructor at Columbia University, and employed such photographers as Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, Arthur Rothstein, Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Marion Post Wolcott, Gordon Parks, John Vachon, and Carl Mydans. The project initially documented cash loans made to individual farmers by the Resettlement Administration and the construction of planned suburban communities. The second stage focused on the lives of sharecroppers in the South and migratory agricultural workers in the midwestern and western states. As the scope of the project expanded, the photographers turned to recording both rural and urban conditions throughout the United States as well as mobilization efforts for World War II.
About this photograph
The Farm Security Administration photography project operated from 1935 to 1944 under Roy Stryker, employing photographers including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, and Russell Lee to document rural poverty and New Deal programmes. The unit produced approximately 175,000 negatives, now held by the Library of Congress.
The project began by recording cash loans to individual farmers made by the Resettlement Administration and the construction of planned suburban communities. It then turned to documenting the lives of sharecroppers in the South and migratory agricultural workers in the Midwest and West. As its scope grew, the photographers recorded both rural and urban conditions across the United States, eventually covering mobilization efforts for the Second World War.
Besides those already named, the unit employed Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Marion Post Wolcott, Gordon Parks, John Vachon, and Carl Mydans. The collection forms an extensive pictorial record of American life during this period and has shaped how the Depression era is remembered.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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