170,000 Great Depression Era Photographs Now Available Online

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Published on: October 6th, 2014

sunday_afternoon_in_new_orleans_-_jan_1941_-_marion_post_wolcott.jpg

1938 Sunday afternoon in New Orleans
Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, January 1938 [Photo: Marion Post Wolcott]

Kenner storefront 1938 - Russell Lee.jpg

1938 Kenner storefront
A Kenner storefront in 1938 [Photo: Russell Lee]

Near French Mkt - 1935 - Walker Evans.jpg

1935 French Market
Near the French Market in 1935 [Photo: Walker Evans]

Sailor in Jackson Square - Oct. 35 - Ben Shahn.jpg

1935 Jackson Square
A sailor in Jackson Square in October 1935 [Photo: Ben Shahn]

Ramp boats under construction at Higgins shipyards - 1943 - John Vachon.jpg

1943 Higgins shipyards
Ramp boats under construction at Higgins shipyards in 1943 [Photo: John Vachon]

Last month, Yale University and the Library of Congress made over 170,000 photographs from across the United States available for browsing through a new program called Photogrammar. The photos were taken from 1935 to 1945 by photographers commissioned by the U.S. Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information to document life during the Great Depression and World War II. After being housed at the Library of Congress for decades, they're now accessible to the public via an interactive map and searchable database created at Yale.

The map is extremely interesting as it allows you to browse by location, zooming in to the Parish level (or to almost any other location in the U.S.). Southern Louisiana is very well-documented, with 224 pictures from Orleans Parish, 112 from Terrebonne, 93 from Ascension, and a smattering of anywhere from 4-40 from the other parishes surrounding Orleans.

You can also search by photographer name. Many well-known photographers of the era, including Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Arthur Rothstein contributed.

Access the photographs here.

Learn more about the project here.

Comments

These are wonderful pictures from New Orleans. Thanks, thanks thanks!

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