Shots From an Incredible New Trove of Depression and World War II Photos

[n2doc]

Between 1935 and 1944, the Farm Security Agency-Office of War Information dispatched photographers to all ends of the United States to document life during hard times and wartime. Many of their photos, taken by now-legendary photographers like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, have become iconic representations of America during the Depression and World War II. But most of the hundreds of thousands of negatives, collected in what became known as "The File," were never seen by the public.

No longer. Yale University's Photogrammar has just made more than 170,000 of the FSA-OWI photos easily accessible online. You can browse and search by photographer, location, date, or subject. Even a quick visit to the site turns up surprising, searing photos that feel like they should be in history books, on the cover of old LIFE magazines, or hanging in art galleries. Here are 10 that caught my eye as I looked through the massive collection—including one taken less than a block from the Mother Jones office in downtown San Francisco.


Riveter at a military aircraft factory. Fort Worth, Texas, 1942 Howard R. Hollem/FSA-OWI Collection


"Wife of Negro sharecropper." Lee County, Mississippi, 1935 Arthur Rothstein/FSA-OWI Collection


"Monday morning, December 8, 1941, after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor." San Francisco, California, 1941 John Collier/FSA-OWI Collection

more

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/09/depression-world-war-ii-lange-photos

http://photogrammar.yale.edu

[calikid]

1. Thank you for the link. n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Fascinating... and I'm supposed to be working on a hot deadline.

Thanks for sharing.

[Scuba]

3. Wow, incredible collection. Thanks for the link n2doc!!

[Scuba]

4. A treasure trove of history, some useful for comparisons, like these shots from Key West, Florida ..

http://photogrammar.yale.edu/records/index.php?record=fsa1997009331/PP


http://sloppyjoes.com/

[rpannier]

5. Interesting

Lots of pics
Thanks

[PeoViejo]

6. I remember Sloppy Joe's Bar from the mid 60's

I used to walk by there on a regular basis. Not being a drinking person, I never frequented the place, but did get the impression that the clientele left something to be desired and it seemed a lot sleazier than the images portray.

[yuiyoshida]

7. Thats so

weird!! That last photo...I KNEW THAT WAS San Francisco before I read the blurb. It must be the structure of the buildings that reminded me of near Market Street.

I have often stood near there waiting for a bus. (Sutter-Kearny Streets)


Edit: didn't expect to find this photo of ladies from an internment camp. I am surprised they look so
happy..I guess good friends will do that for you.



LOS ANGELES, JAPANESE LEAVING FOR INTERNMENT CAMP


WOW....

[madfloridian]

12. Manzanar et al...we put them in concentration camps, seized their homes. Even 1/16 ancestry...

it was shameful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanar

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/08/world-war-ii-internment-of-japanese-americans/100132/

[yuiyoshida]

13. I thought about those photos...you know...

George Takei (Star Trek) could be in one of them...as a child.



Omg...I recognize this as Post street, near JAPANTOWN! This was taken in 1942.



looks like this now:

[canuckledragger]

17. Knowing how things like this work throughout history...

Did any get their businesses/property back after this witch hunt? Or did it wind up the same as any other time e.g. the Salem witch hunts, the german persecution of the jews, etc.

[yuiyoshida]

18. I know it forced many Japanese to move from San Francisco

To San Jose and Los Angeles.. many never got their homes back.



Many didn't want to come back to San Francisco.. too many bad memories..

[canuckledragger]

20. I'm not surprised in the least.

And expect the same thing to come in the future, e.g. muslims after 9/11, etc.

Some folks never learn anything from history.

Or maybe they do, hence the desperate attempts to demonize any folks that hold power that are 'other than white'.

Mind you, I don't like the treatment and make no excuses of this behaviour regardless of political party, but the right-wingers never miss a chance to mention the persecution of these poor folks during that time under a democratic president...

Although the hypocrites never mention their persecution of muslims (or those they perceive as muslim, remember the Sikh temple massacre?) after 9/11...

[yuiyoshida]

21. During the Great Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan a few years back

I remember seeing comments on twitter like, "They got what they deserved for bombing Pearl Harbor" ...like as if the two bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not enough. When this was pointed out to them, their comments were "We should have finished the job, and nuked the entire country out of existence, and then come back for those in interment camps and treated them, like the Nazi's treated the Jews".

This was an actual comment. Some of the race hatred is still around today.. though the war has long been over. People have said nasty things to me, despite the fact I had not even been born than.. yet some how I am connected to all of it.

It simply makes me sad...to think about it. My parents were born in Hawaii, to Japanese immigrants...I don't know what happened to my grand parents during that time, no one in my family will ever speak about it. I know here on the mainland Japanese were sent to internment camps, I assume they had the same thing in Hawaii...but again, my parents will not talk about it, its a forbidden subject.

[canuckledragger]

22. You're not responsible for any of it.

Despite the attempts of racists to transfer their guilt onto you.

NOBODY deserved to be incinerated by 2 bombs on CIVILIAN targets and held responsible, generations laters by a bunch of racist cowards.

[yuiyoshida]

24. During that time period when Japan had the disaster

It seemed like all of us who were Japanese-Americans were targets by the right wingers on twitter. I nearly deleted my account, as I was accosted on line for just being who I am, but some friends stuck by me.. and I stayed..and many of those accounts that attacked me had been terminated by those who run twitter. I am grateful for that... as I said, I was not even born during that time period.

I used to go to a chat room on a website called Meebo. Interestingly enough, the chat room I went to was a Canadian one, but it had been taken over by Students from mainland China. On finding out that I was Japanese-American they threw their hatred towards me as well, one asking me what was it like to have the blood of Nanking on my hands.

I told them the same thing. First of all, I am an American first...secondly I was not born then, nor were my relatives living in Japan at the time. My mother has often hinted that we have a bit of Hawaiian blood so I may even be mixed.. Japanese and Hawaiian. They were in Hawaii when the Japanese attacked..

But of course the Chinese students would not listen. They have been taught to keep the hatred alive, long, long after the Japanese left China... and they continue to learn about this in their schools in away, where most of them can not even stand the sight of seeing someone from Japanese Heritage. I was forced to leave the chat room, despite the fact, the Canadian friends there encouraged me to stay, because they insisted they still had control of the chat room.. but they really couldn't stop the Chinese visitors from coming.

Eventually Meebo was shut down..and I had found other places to go.. but I had up and until that point in my life, never come up against that much hatred in my life. Growing up in San Francisco I had many Asian friends, including Chinese. None of them ever expressed that kind of hatred to me, ever.

[Brother Buzz]

14. The last four photos were by Dorothea Lange

I just recently learned the major body of her Japanese internment camp project photos were impounded and hidden from the public for many, many years; the government financed the project and owned the photographs. They were unearthed an released in 2006.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/arts/design/06lang.html?_r=1&

[yuiyoshida]

15. I also discovered there were photos by ANSEL ADAMS...

I remember seeing his photos at the SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART not long ago. What an amazing artist he was!


Manzanar Interment Camp

[Brother Buzz]

16. Adams, Ed Weston, Pirkle Jones, and Imogen Cunningham were all great artists...

But Dorothea Lange could capture people in candied photographs like no one else.

Ansel Adams visited Manzanar, Dorothea Lange lived Manzanar.

Off topic: If you have the time, view PBS's AMERICAN MASTERS Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/dorothea-lange/watch-full-film-dorothea-lange-grab-a-hunk-of-lightning/3260/

[xchrom]

8. du rec.

[Sherman A1]

9. Thanks for Posting!

[WillyT]

10. HUGE K & R !!! - THANK YOU !!!

[Historic NY]

11. I seen most for my area but there were lots for interracial summer camps.

[smirkymonkey]

19. Thank you! Amazing photos!

I never get tired of looking at historical photographs. I completely lose myself in those images. If there is one journey I could take that I have not already it would be to go back in time. I am completely haunted by the images of life before I was born. It is endlessly fascinating to me.

[Generic Other]

23. Wonderful! Amazing stuff

Thanks so much for posting this.

[Scuba]

25. I'm still wading through this amazing, amazing collection.