Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information
Materials
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Materials In Other Divisions| Collection
Guides | Educational
Materials | Exhibitions
The photographs of the Farm Security Administration (FSA)-Office
of War Information (OWI), transferred to the Library of Congress
in 1944, form an extensive pictorial record of American life
between 1935 and 1943. This U.S. government photography project
was headed by Roy E. Stryker, formerly an economics instructor
at Columbia University, and engaged 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
the Resettlement Administration's cash loans to individual
farmers, and the agency's construction of planned suburban
communities. The second stage focused on the lives of sharecroppers
in the South and of migratory agricultural workers in the
midwestern and western states. As the scope of the project
expanded, the photographers turned to recording rural and
urban conditions throughout the United States and mobilization
efforts for World War II.
The collection encompasses the approximately 77,000 images
made by photographers working in Stryker's unit as it existed
in a succession of government agencies: the Resettlement
Administration (RA, 1935-37), the Farm Security Administration
(FSA, 1937-42), and the Office of War Information (OWI,
1942-44). In addition, the collection includes photographs
produced by other government agencies (e.g., the Office of
Emergency Management) and collected from various non-government
sources. In total, the collection consists of approximately
171,000 black-and-white film negatives, 107,000 black-and-white
photographic prints, and 1,610 color transparencies.
Online Materials
Prints & Photographs Division
The core of the FSA-OWI Collection consists of approximately
171,000 black-and-white negatives, encompassing both negatives
that were printed for FSA-OWI use and those that were not
printed at the time ("killed" negatives). The negatives
have been digitized and cataloged, and are available via
World Wide Web, through the Prints
and Photographs Online Catalog.
FSA-OWI Black-and-White
Negatives
The black-and-white portion of the collection consists
of about 171,000 black-and-white film negatives, encompassing
both negatives that were printed for FSA-OWI use and those
that were not printed at the time.
Through the Web site, it is possible for researchers to see
for the first time images that were not made available during
the years of the FSA-OWI photographic unit's operation and
that are not represented by corresponding photographic prints
(the portion of the collection that has been available to
the public for several decades at the Library of Congress).
Although the unprinted negatives are often simply alternate
views of images that were printed, by viewing both printed
and unprinted negatives, researchers may be able to glean
additional visual information. The Web site also offers a
feature that enables users to browse the negatives by their "call
numbers." The resulting display mimics a printed "contact
sheet," often used by photographers to make an initial
examination of exposed negatives. Viewing the images in this
way enables users to view related printed and unprinted negatives.
It may also offer insight on photographers' working methods
and on the operating procedures of the FSA-OWI photographic
unit.
The FSA-OWI negatives are arranged in series based on issuing
agency, film type, and whether the negative is an original
or a copy negative. The letters and numbers used in the prefix
of the "reproduction number" for each image encodes
this information. For example, the prefix "LC-USF33" designates:
Farm Security Administration 35 millimeter original film
negative. The negatives are being digitized and cataloged
series by series. Digitized images and accompanying catalog
records will be added to the Web site in stages as the work
is completed. (The same images and
records are also available through a Library of Congress
American Memory Web site: America
From the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White
Photographs from the FSA - OWI, 1935-1945).
FSA-OWI
Color Photographs
Photographers working for the U.S. government's Farm Security
Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information
(OWI) between 1939 and 1944 made approximately 1,600 color
photographs that depict life in the United States, including
Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The pictures focus on rural
areas and farm labor, as well as aspects of World War II mobilization,
including factories, railroads, aviation training, and women
working.
The original images are color transparencies ranging in
size from 35 mm. to 4x5 inches. They complement the better-known
black-and-white FSA/OWI photographs, made during the same
period. (The same images and
records are also available through a Library of Congress
American Memory Web site: America
From the Great Depression to World War II: Color Photographs
from the FSA - OWI, 1935-1945).
Related Materials in Other Divisions
American Folklife Center
The American
Folklife Center holds a collection
of Farm Security Administration and Resettlement
Administration recordings,
correspondence, field notes and other materials. The Division's
online presentation Voices
from the Dust Bowl provides access to 371 audio titles,
23 graphic images, a sampling of the dust jackets, and all
the print material in the collection. Covering a period between
1940 and 1941, this collection documents the lives of Dust
Bowl migrants living in Farm Security Administration (FSA)
camps in California.
Manuscript Division
The Manuscript Division holds
the personal papers of FSA photographers Jack
Delano, Arthur Rothstein, and John
Vachon:
Papers of Jack Delano, 1927-1995 (bulk 1941-1943).
ID No.: MSS84274
Description: 700 items. 6 containers plus 1 oversize. 2.4 linear feet.
Finding aid: [outline view] [full
view] [PDF: 25KB /
5 pages; requires the free Adobe
Acrobat reader to view].
Photographer, film maker, classical music composer, and book illustrator. Born
1914 as Jacob Ovcharov in Kiev, Ukraine; immigrated to the U.S. in 1922; died
1997 in Puerto Rico where he had lived since 1946.
Summary: chiefly correspondence,
notebooks, and caption books relating to works by Delano as a photographer for
the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information depicting
the Great Depression, railroads in the West, Acadian farmers in Maine, and life
in the South and in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Also includes transcript
of an oral history interview conducted with Delano sponsored by the Archives
of American Art and material relating to Elizabeth Kenny.
Notes: most photographs
in the collection are housed in the Prints & Photographs Division.
Papers of Arthur Rothstein, 1936-2000 (bulk 1952-1985)
ID
No.: MSS84965
Description: 3,150 items. 9 containers. 3.6
linear feet.
Unpublished finding aid-- contact the Manuscript
Reading Room for further information.
Access Advisory: Restrictions
apply. Correspondence, memoranda, speeches and lectures,
writings, notes, subject files, transcripts, press clippings,
and other papers relating to Rothstein’s career as
a photographer for the U.S. Farm Security Administration
(FSA) and Look and Parade magazines and as an educator on
the subject of photography. Subjects include rural and small
town America from 1935 until the early 1940s. Includes a
transcript of a 1952 conversation between Roy Emerson Stryker
and FSA photographers Dorothea Lange, Rothstein, and John
Vachon pertaining to their work.
Notes: Most photographs,
negatives, and contact sheets transferred to Library of Congress
Prints & Photographs Division.
Papers of John Vachon, 1913-1995 (bulk
1935-1959)
ID No.: MSS85246
Description: 4,000 items; 12 containers; 4.6 linear
feet.
Finding aid: [outline view] [full
view] [PDF: 28KB /
6 pages; requires the free Adobe
Acrobat reader to view].
Photographer. Correspondence, family papers, writings,
and miscellaneous material relating primarily to Vachon’s
career as a photographer with the Farm Security Administration,
Office of War Information, and Look magazine.
The Prints & Photographs
Division of the Library of Congress has custody of John
Vachon’s photographic collection of prints and negatives.
Collection Guides
Farm
Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection
This guide provides administrative and background information
on the collection, a bibliography,
and information on related
collections at other instititutions.
Dorothea
Lange's "Migrant Mother" Photographs in the Farm
Security Administration Collection: An Overview
Farm Security
Administration-Office of War Information Collection: 15
Popular Requests
Farm Security
Administration-Office of War Information Collection: 15
Staff Selections
Photographers
of the FSA: Selected Portraits
Photographs
of Signs Enforcing Racial Discrimination: Documentation
by Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information
Photographers.
Educational Materials
Collection Connections
Collection Connections for educators provide activity ideas
for using the collections to develop critical-thinking
skills.
America
from the Great Depression to World War II: Black-and-White
Photographs from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945
Summary and teaching resources.
America
from the Great Depression to World War II: Color Photographs
from the FSA and OWI, ca. 1935-1945
Summary and teaching resources.
Exhibitions
Bound
for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943
The first major exhibition of the little known color images
taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office
of War Information. These vivid scenes and portraits capture
the effects of the Depression on America's rural and small
town populations, the nation's subsequent economic recovery
and industrial growth, and the country's mobilization
for World War II.
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