Making Soap 2

Cutting homemade soap (comprised of grease and lye) into bars. In a rural community with few medical services, ensuring that the knife didn't slip was crucially important. New Mexico, 1939.

Photo by Russell Lee. [American Memory link]

Making Soap

Ah, yes, the good ol' days, when one spooned grease and lye into a tub set over a woodfire. Eventually the whole mess hardened and one cut it out of the tub in chunks.

The thing we forget when we romanticize living 'close to the land' prior to modern manufacturing is that it involved hour upon hour of unpleasant, tedious and frequently dangerous work. There's a reason the people in so many of these photos look older than their years.

Photo taken by Russell Lee in New Mexico, 1939. [American Memory link]

Circus

I love this shot, of youngsters sneaking under a circus tent in 1936 New Mexico. (click image for a larger version)

Photo by Arthur Rothstein. [American Memory link]

Wool Into Blankets

I love the light and the shadows in this photo. Maclovia Lopez, the wife of the mayor of a New Mexico town, spins wool sheered from her ten sheep so that it may later be woven into blankets.

Photo by John Collier, 1943. [American Memory link]

Cat Cuddle

The son of a rancher in New Mexico's Rocky Mountains has a feline moment.

Photo by John Collier, 1943. [American Memory link]

Hot Peppers

Chili peppers drying in the sun. Hung from an adobe building in New Mexico.

Photo by Russell Lee, 1940. [American Memory link]

Swing Your Partner

Square dancing in New Mexico, 1940. Photo by Russell Lee.

[American Memory link] to locate this image, use search terms: new, square, dance

Nativity

Christmas Eve, in the church. Taos, New Mexico, 1942.

Photo by John Collier.

[American Memory link] to locate this image, use search terms: Taos, Christmas