Segregation Photoprints

Collection

Identifier: MS 042

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains 150, 8 x 10", black and white photoprints. Most of the images are from Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection at the Library of Congress. Images show African Americans in urban and rural settings during the Great Depression and World War II. Many of the images are available digitally from the American Memory collection at the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html. The collection also includes some presumably original photography from the 1970s and pre-Civil War and reconstruction images.

Images are arranged generally by subject matter and include captions and LC item numbers. Separtion sheets with captions remain with photos, though, most contain the same information on the back side of the photo. Some other documentation that was found with this collection is included.

Dates

Creation: 1860-1972

Creator

Library of Congress. (Organization)

Access Restrictions

Open for research without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the:
Ruth A. Haas Library
Archives and Special Collections
181 White Street
Danbury, CT 06810
Phone: 203-837-8992
E-mail: stevensb@wcsu.edu

Historical/Biographical Note

The Farm Security Administration was an agency created in the New Deal. One of its missions was to photographically document the plight of rural/agrarian America. Similarly, the Office of War Information also had as one of its missions to photographically document life in wartime America. However, OWI's purpose was propagandistic and the FSA's documentary.

Sources:

FSA-OWI: About the Collection. Library of Congress. [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fabout.html].

Extent

0.7 Linear Feet (, 1 box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection is comprised of black-and-white, 8 x 10" photoprints most presumably ordered from the Library of Congress in 1972. Most of the images are part of the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection and show African Americans in urban and rural settings during the Great Depression and World War II. Many of the images are available digitally from the American Memory collection at the Library of Congress: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html. The collection also includes some presumably original photography and pre-Civil War and reconstruction images.

Arrangement

Folders are arranged alphabetically by topically.

The files are grouped into 2 series:

Missing Title

Miscellaneous.
FSA-OWI: Depression/WWII Era Images of Segregated Black America

Provenance

Provenance is unknown. The collection was found in storage under the Haas Library in 2007 and had been assembled in 1972. It was either ordered by a faculty member and given to the library or ordered by the library to support a course offered.