Jack Delano took this picture at the Union Station in Chicago, Illinois. He took many pictures of railroad activities and many of his shots illustrated the new role women played in keeping the railroads moving as America shifted into World War II planning. DeLano was born in Kiev, Russia in 1914 and moved to the United States in 1923. He started his schooling as an illustrator at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts but switched to photography while on a traveling fellowship awarded to him by the school.

After graduating, Delano put together a photographic study of mining conditions in Schuylkill county Pennsylvania. He sent it to Roy Stryker, head of the photographic program of the Farm Security Administration (FSA). With the help of Marion Post Wolcott and Edwin Rosskam, Stryker offered Delano a job in 1940. From 1940 to 1943, Delano worked as an FSA photographer as well as for the Government of Puerto Rico. He also served as a war photographer and settled in Puerto Rico after the war.

The Farm Security Administration (FSA) was created in the Department of Agriculture in 1937. The FSA and its predecessor, the Resettlement Administration (RA), were New Deal programs designed to assist poor farmers during the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. Roy Emerson Stryker was the head of a special photographic section in the RA and FSA from 1935-1942. The assistance to the farmers was to document the need for agricultural assistance and recording the results of the agency's efforts to address that need

Under the direction of Stryker, the documentation effort became a major social recording of life in America during the depression and into the start of WW II.

The effort created opportunities for the emergence of significant photographic talent such as: Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Marion Post Wolcott, John Vachon, Walker Evans, and many others.

As the photographers shifted from documenting economic and agricultural crisis to promoting the war effort, the FSA photographers gave concerted attention to recording the lives of members of various ethnic groups and the entry of women into the workforce.

The Library of Congress preserves and maintains this vast collection. The FSA program merged into the Office of War Information (OWI) with America's preparation for war. The Farm Security Administration/ Office of War Information (FSA /OWI) Collection contains 164,000 black and white negatives, 107,000 black and white photographic prints, and 1,610 color transparencies.

Medium : 1 negative : nitrate

Created/Published : January, 1943

Creator : Jack Delano, photographer, 1914-1979

Part of the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection housed in the Prints and Photographic Division of the Library of Congress.

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Product #: fsa8d24901