Mid-Century America in Color, 1939 - 1943

(Above) Click image for much larger view! Worker at carbon black plant. Sunray, Texas, 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Worker at carbon black plant John Vachon. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress


(Above) Click image for much larger view! Barker at the grounds at the state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress


(Above) Click image for much larger view! Backstage at the “girlie” show at the state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! At the Vermont state fair. Rutland, Vermont, September 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! Jack Whinery, homesteader, and his family. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! Men remove their hats before saying grace at barbeque dinner at the New Mexico Fair. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! School children singing. Pie Town, New Mexico, October 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! Boy building a model airplane as girl watches. Robstown, Texas, January 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Arthur Rothstein. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! A Fourth of July celebration. St. Helena Island, South Carolina, 1939. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! African Americans fishing in creek near cotton plantations. Belzoni, Mississippi, October 1939. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! A store with live fish for sale. Vicinity of Natchitoches, Louisiana, July 1940. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! African American migratory workers by a “juke joint”. Belle Glade, Florida, February 1941. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! Children aiming sticks as guns, lined up against a brick building. Washington, D.C.(?), between 1941 and 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photographer Unknown. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! House. Washington, D.C.(?), between 1941 and 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Louise Rosskam. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! At Beecher Street School. Southington, Connecticut, May 1942. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Fenno Jacobs. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



(Above) Click image for much larger view! Rural school children. San Augustine County, Texas, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by John Vachon. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress



THESE IMAGES, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

Via Denver Post.

Before and After

(Above) A rare color photo from 1943! Click on this image for super high res view!

CALLED “THE BANANA HOUSE” BY LOCALS IN THE YEAR 1943, this fruit stand was located at 1900 Franklin Street in Houston, TX. In May of that year, when FSA photographer Vachon snapped this image, the house was already nearly 100 years old.
4 x 5 Kodachrome transparency by John Vachon.


(Above) 1900 FRANKLIN STREET TODAY. The “Banana House” would have been located just about dead center in this photograph taken just months ago. Image courtesy of Virtual Earth technology. Click on this image for larger view!


WELL, I DON’T THINK THERE IS ANY QUESTION ABOUT THESE TWO IMAGES. Houston got rid of a banana stinkin’ eyesore a long time ago for this big concrete improvement! Chalk up another victory for civic progress. Images sourced through shorpy.com.

The Way We Were

(Above) Photographer: George Grantham Bain (1865 - 1944)
Police officer by the Brooklyn Bridge, New York, 1916.
(Above) Anonymous Photo, Black American Barbershop, 1940s
(click on images for a larger view)
(Above) Photographer: John Vachon (1914 - 1975)

Migrant couple living in one room of abandoned house on property of fruit grower, Berrien County, Michigan, 1940.
(Above) Anonymous Photo, Mountain Lion on the Street in the Rain, 1940s
(Above) Anonymous Photo, Rural Family with Nine Children, 1930s. Penned on verso: “9 children, oldest 9 years, 1 set twins, skipped 1 year. Cherokee Co.”
(Above) Photographer: John De Biase (active mid-2oth century)
Black American Children Workers, 1940s
Penned on verso: These are some of the kids whose parents’ strike is being fought by imported strikebreakers. Wages for Starkey workers ranged from 15¢ an hour for 7-year olds to 45¢ for adults.”

ONE OF THE THINGS OLD PHOTOGRAPHS DO FOR ME is to make me stop and re-examine where we are and how far we have come. At the same time, it makes me rethink just how far we need to go. Here is a remarkable set of photographs that speak to various aspects of our American way of life.

These photographs are all for sale on eBay, the selections of James Lamkin—a person who has helped shape and define this entire “vernacular” phenomenon we see today. James was finding and selling snapshots before most. Most importantly—James has an eye like few of his contemporaries. It’s unique. While many sell within the so-called “odd” snapshot genre—James will select an anonymous photo because of it’s sublime magnificence. As far as the history of photography goes, James is able to make these incredible connections to the history of photography.

You never know what you are going to find on his eBay site: this week he has a heart-wrenching, incredible Depression era FSA photograph by WPA photographer John Vachon, whose work is in the Archives of the Library of Congress. Next to that, for comparison— an anonymous snapshot of a family with 9 children from the same time period, a photograph with equal power.

Check out his site for a chance to own a piece of photo history.