Donkey Cart

New Mexico, 1940. A time in which homesteaders still used burros/donkeys as a means of transportation.

Photo by Russell Lee.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: burro, cart

Mmm, Cabbage

The collection contains a series of 1942 photos documenting the processing of fresh whole cabbage into dehydrated ribbons which were then canned and shipped overseas to feed the armed forces.

In the first photo, a worker hermetically hand-seals a 2.5-gallon can. Gourmet fare it was not. Nor had routine industrial tasks become fully mechanized yet.


Photos by Russell Lee.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate these images, use search terms: cabbage, can

Empties

The aftermath of a "beer party" in 1941 Oregon.

Photo by Russell Lee.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: beer, celebration

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Timothy Levy Crouch, whom the photo caption describes as a "Rogerine Quaker."

1940, Connecticut. Photo by Jack Delano.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Crouch, Thanksgiving

Anticipation

A younger son of the Timothy Levy Crouch family peeks into a pot pre-Thanksigving dinner in 1940 Ledyard, Connecticut.

Note the wood-fired stove. Other shots show the boy's father fetching firewood for the event.

Photo by Jack Delano

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Crouch, Thanksgiving

Christmas Dinner

As American Thanksgiving approaches, our thoughts turn toward the many reasons we have to feel grateful.

Taken in 1936, the caption accompanying these photos reads: "Christmas dinner in the home of Earl Pauley. Near Smithfield, Iowa. Dinner consisted of potatoes, cabbage and pie." Note the lunch bucket near the top of the images.

(Photos by Russell Lee)
--

[American Memory link]

to locate these images, use search terms: Earl, Pauley

Lobster Fest

Extreme lobster claw. Taken at the Fulton Fish Market in New York city, 1943.

Photo by Gordon Parks.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: giant, lobster

Husband & Wife

This lovely portrait, of Mr. & Mrs. William Gaynor, was taken in 1941. The couple are dairy farmers. Other photos in the series show them milking cows and canning vegetables while their children collect potatoes from the fields.

Photo by Jack Delano.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: William, Gaynor

Scantily Clad

Wrestlers at the 1941 Tunbridge, Vermont "World Fair."

Photo by Jack Delano.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Tunbridge, wrestlers

Snowy Mountains

The collection contains a dozen stunning shots of US aircraft flying over Alaskan mountains during World War II. These are A-29s near Mount McKinley.

(In 1942, Japanese forces landed on the Alaskan Aleutian island of Attu - the site of the only World War II land battle on US soil.)

Photo attributed to the U.S. Army Signal Corps., 1942.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Alaska, mountains

Long Life Butter

Land O'Lakes butter in 1941. Sixty-seven years later, this product's packaging has changed little.

Photo by John Vachon at a butter packing plant in Chicago.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: butter, land, lakes

Neighbors

Chatting over the back fence in Laurium, Michigan.

Photo taken by John Vachon in 1941.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: back, fence, copper

Army Supply

Whether American automobile manufacturers will survive the current economic crisis remains uncertain. Meanwhile it's interesting to recall that, back in the forties, these companies were central to the war effort.

The above photo was taken in 1942 by Arthur S. Siegel. The caption reads: "Chrysler Corporation. Dodge truck plant. Detroit, Michigan (vicinity). These long rows of Dodge Army trucks await shipment to various branches of the armed forces. Hundreds of army vehicles come off the Chrysler Corporation production lines daily."

--
[American Memory link]
to locate this image, use search terms: Dodge, army, trucks

Feast

The young man in this photo is carrying "loaves of bread made from Red Cross flour at an evacuation camp." He and others at this camp in Tehran, Iran are Polish.

Photo taken in 1943 by Nick Parrino.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: loaves, bread

Haircut

Pulp and paper workers in Maine, 1943. The camp handyman is giving this haircut since the nearest professional barber is 35 miles away.

Photo by John Collier.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: camp, barber

Hands

The caption associated with this photo reads: "The hands of Mrs. Andrew Ostermeyer, wife of a homesteader, Woodbury County, Iowa."

Other photos explain that this 76-year-old and her 81-year-old husband had their farm re-possessed by the loan company and now live with their son.

Photo by Russell Lee, 1936.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Andrew, Ostermeyer

Fabulous Face

This striking gent, Manuel Zorra, was photographed in 1940. A fisherman of Portuguese descent, he made his home in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

According to Edwin Rosskam, the photographer, Mr. Zorra was "one of the best storytellers on the cape."

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Manuel, Zorra

The Lighthouse

Two-year-old Pauline is able to feed herself after receiving coaching at The Lighthouse - a New York city institution for the blind.

Photo by Richard Boyer, 1944.
--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Pauline, feeding, herself

Bloom of Youth

Sometimes it's necessary to go to war.

But armed conflict should never be undertaken lightly. As this photo makes clear, it is a country's young men - barely out of boyhood - who are sacrificed.

Photo taken by John Collier at a San Francisco marines recruiting office, 1941.

--
[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: recruiting, marines

Lest We Forget

A military funeral in Alaska, held sometime between 1942 and 1945. The photo caption reads: "Here atop a hill are the remains of seven soldiers, mainly pilots who lost their lives in action."

(Photo is attributed to the United States Signal Corps.)

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: military, funeral, Alaska

Inmate

In 1941, a portion of the Charlotte Amalie Hospital in the Virgin Islands was allocated to the "insane asylum."

These days, the photo caption would describe this individual as a patient/client rather than an "inmate." And the facility would be called a "mental health center."

(photographer: Jack Delano)

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: insane, asylum, inmate

Preacher Man

A preacher reading the scriptures to another man in San Antonio, Texas - 1939.

Photo by Russell Lee.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: preacher, scripture

Howdy Horse

A fun shot of a horse trainer and his steed at a rodeo in San Angelo, Texas.

Taken by Russell Lee in March 1940.

--
[American Memory link]

Mother & Child

Following Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor in Dec. 1941, the United States officially joined World War II. One of the many consequences of these events was that individuals of Japanese origin or descent were evacuated from US coastal regions. In 1988, Congress apologized for that policy. Financial reparations in excess of $1 billion have since been made.

This photo was taken in Nyssa, Oregon in July 1942. Photographer Russell Lee explains: "Japanese-American mother and child at a baseball game. They were evacuated from a coastal area, volunteered to do farm work and now live at the FSA (Farm Security Administration) mobile camp."

A caption associated with another photo in this series notes: "These people volunteered to leave the reception centers to do farm work. When it was apparent that they would not be satisfied to stay unless they had electricity in individual camps, the sugar beet companies and the town of Nyssa arranged for electrical connections."

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: mother, child, Nyssa

Fat Ladies

A poster for a sideshow at a county fair.

Vermont, 1941 (Jack Delano).

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: fair, sideshow, poster

Sweat

Taken by Jack Delano - apparently in the Virgin Islands, late 1941.

--

[American Memory link]

Coal Miner's Daughter

The caption accompanying this photo reads: "Daughter of migrant Tennessee coal miner. Living in American River camp near Sacramento, California."

One wonders what became of this person. Were any of her dreams realized?

Taken by Dorothea Lange, 1936.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: coal, mine, daughter, Tennessee

Brothers & Sisters

These youngsters are identified as the children of Albert Lynch, a farmer receiving government assistance in Dummerston, Vermont.

Another photo in the series shows seven siblings in total - none of whom could be described as over-fed. There are no pictures - or any mention - of their mother.

Photographed by Jack Delano, Aug. 1941.

--

[American Memory link]

Abundance

Freshly-laid eggs in Sonoma county, California.

Photo taken by Russell Lee in 1942.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: freshly, laid,

Boots

I love everything about this photo - the shadow on the woodgrain of the porch, the elaborate stitching on the well-worn leather, the spurs, the fact that the denim cuffs are of different widths.

Photographer Russell Lee says that although the gent here is a farmer, he prefers to outfit himself according to his earlier job as a cowboy. Taken in 1940 in Pie Town, New Mexico.

--

[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: spurs, pie,