The FSA/OWI collection, comprising more than 170,000 black-and-white photographs and 1,600 color prints, is the result of a government photography project undertaken by a succession of federal agencies. The FSA originally initiated the project to document the devastating effects of the Depression on America's rural population to garner support for government relief efforts. As the country began to mobilize for World War II, however, the photographic unit of the FSA was transferred to the newly created OWI, and war preparations became its focus. The result is a portrait of Americans at work in farms and factories during the first half of the 20th century -- from Vermont to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and almost every state in between.

The complete collection of some 170,000 FSA/OWI photographs is available on the Library of Congress American Memory Web site in "America from the Great Depression to World Was II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945." The collection is also featured in a Library exhibition, "Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943."

"Bound for Glory," a 192-page hardcover book with 175 color photographs, includes a Library of Congress reference number for each of the photographs, which enables readers to search for the specific image online or order photographic prints from the Library's Photoduplication Service. The book is available for $35 in bookstores nationwide and in the Library's Sales Shop. For credit card orders, call (888) 682-3557.