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Vintage photos of:
Our holdings include hundreds of glass and film negatives/transparencies that we've scanned ourselves; in addition, many other photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs) in the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) They are adjusted, restored and reworked by your webmaster in accordance with his aesthetic sensibilities before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here. All of these images (including "derivative works") are protected by copyright laws of the United States and other jurisdictions and may not be sold, reproduced or otherwise used for commercial purposes without permission.
[REV 25-NOV-2014]
March 1941. "Bedroom. House in Negro slum district. Norfolk, Virginia." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
June 1941. "Wife of defense worker ironing clothes in utility building at FSA trailer camp. Erie, Pennsylvania." Photo by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
December 1940. Radford, Virginia. "Construction workers in room at Mrs. Jones's boardinghouse. Six men live in this room. Three beds, pay eight to ten dollars a week rent. Most of them have families they left behind in Bluefield, West Virginia; Bristol, Tennessee; or High Point, North Carolina. They are carpenters, carpenters' assistants, riggers and laborers. They make sixty cents to $1.25 per hour." Acetate negative by John Vachon. View full size.
March 1941. "A miscellany of pictures in overcrowded Navy towns. Housing in Portsmouth, Virginia." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon. View full size.
December 1940. Radford, Virginia. "Influx of construction workers in small town to build Hercules Powder Plant. Five of the boarders at Mrs. Pritchard's house in the parlor. Eighteen men board here." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon. View full size.
November 1940. "Porch light to welcome expected visitors. Pierre, South Dakota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
December 1940. Radford, Virginia. "Influx of construction workers in small town to build Hercules Powder Plant. Man just arrived to report for work." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
September 1939. "A rainy evening in New York City. Looking west toward the Hudson River from University Place." Medium format negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.
September 1939. Ducktown, Tennessee. "Copper miners on strike waiting for scabs to come out of mines." Acetate negative by Marion Post Wolcott. View full size.
October 1940. "Surrey, Ward County, North Dakota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
October 1940. "U.S. Highway 83, Ward County, North Dakota." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
October 1940. "Max, North Dakota. Population 500." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
November 1940. "Velva, North Dakota." Birthplace of CBS newsman Eric Sevareid. Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.
June 1941. "The family of Clinton J. Stewart, FSA borrower. White Plains, Greene County, Georgia." Yet another example of Jack Delano's stylized portraiture of Farm Security Administration clients. Avant-gardeners, to coin a phrase. View full size.
November 1940. "Lincoln, Nebraska. State capitol in background." Medium format acetate negative by John Vachon for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.