Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

Denver Post ^ | July 26, 2010 | Plog

[re_tail20]

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.

[Roccus]

PING!!!

[Spirochete]

I sometime wonder how the people in those photos would react to swarms of Mexicans marching through America’s streets with Mexican flags, demanding citizenship and freebies, screaming slogans in Spanish with raised fists.

[FoxPro]

Awesome, and they just kept on getting better and better.

[American Constitutionalist]

The America that we once knew when America was great.

[PUGACHEV]

" Idid a 'save as' of the blog webpage in Firefox. It eventually gave me an error (because of javascript crap on the blog page). However, it did download the pix in JPEG format. 150-250 Kb each.

Sure, you can get JPEGs or low-res versions from the LOC too, but, IMHO, they are not worth the trouble if you are going to enlarge them. For the best results, you need to work with uncompressed TIFF files which, for these photos, are in the 50MB range, and sometimes become five times that when you work on them in PS and eventually up-res them. One thing that does help, however, is that the TIFF files you get from the LOC are very high resolution to begin with.

[American Constitutionalist]

" Not a single fat slob (obese person). "

That's because they didn't have the Oprah generation back then.
The Oprah show has been around since 1986,,, 24 years, a whole generation.
How long have we have had the Obese problem in this country ? 20 years ? 25 years ? there has got to be some kind of connection between the Obese problem and the the Oprah show.

[Georgia Girl 2]

A wonderful look back at a time when we were still America insted of Amerika.

[ex-snook]

"The America that we once knew when America was great."

Materially we have come a long, long way in a relatively short time, but as a people has our focus on the material done us in?

[radiohead]

<A lot of the kids in the pics will still be alive, in their 70s or 80s

I was thinking the same thing. My mother could have been a kid in the Wash DC photos from the early 40’s.

[BBell]

The Obese Oprah Generation. O.O.G.(OOG). I heard it here first at F.R. LOL!

[buck61]

Wow !!!! thanks for the post. Really brings back memories, especially the pic’s with the dinner setting. I ate many a meal with such a setting. We were poor but, we were a very happy family and we that are still alive, (family) wish we could return to this era.

[RckyRaCoCo]

A different time, that’s for sure. Thanks.

[American Constitutionalist]

" Materially we have come a long, long way in a relatively short time, but as a people has our focus on the material done us in? "

Yes, we have turned our focus away from GOD, but, Communism is what has done us in.
Ever since 1918, the Commies have infiltrated this country to destroy it.
Liberalism/Marxism/Socialism/Political Correctness/Feminism, the list can go on and on.

[K-oneTexas]

Awesome is right. I love black and white pictures, just something moving in them.

These color slices of history are just as moving.

Wonderful viewing.

[Sunshine Sister]

Thanks for the post. Those are REALLY cool pictures!

[RayChuang88]

Those are excellent photos. However, I'd wish they had them scanned digitally and use a program like Adobe Photoshop CS5 or Corel Paint Shop Pro XI to correct the yellowing of the colors on these color photos.

[magslinger]

Swampsniper has an outdoor photography list. I didn't see another photography pinglist on the master list. (Scroll down for latest list.)

[MaryFromMichigan]

Thanks!

[ex-snook]

" Yes, we have turned our focus away from GOD, but, Communism is what has done us in. Ever since 1918, the Commies have infiltrated this country to destroy it. Liberalism/Marxism/Socialism/Political Correctness/Feminism, the list can go on and on."

Yes, but first we must answer what has made Communism so attractive?

You might also consider that our Constitution interpretation which has separated Church and State has eroded God in today's effort to purge God from everywhere and make the State the enemy of religion.

[Clemenza]

You might also consider that our Constitution interpretation which has separated Church and State has eroded God in today's effort to purge God from everywhere and make the State the enemy of religion.

In response specifically to your post, I give you Mr. Jefferson:

""History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."

Personally, I don't feel nostalgic for the era depicted in these pictures, where people lived in poverty (with double-digit unemployment) in tenements and shacks. They also elected the most left-wing government in American history at that time, one which included closet communists. But, hey, at least they prayed!

The rot that has become of America cannot be merely blamed on lack of religion. African Americans, after all, are the most religious demographic in the United States, yet suffer disproportionately from social pathologies. It lies in the growing dependence on the state and on a therepeutic culture the replaced self-reliance with "feelings."