If you live in the United States you are partial owner to some of the most important photographs in U.S. history. The Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) funded a national documentary photo project during the Great Depression years (1935 – 1945). Now-legendary photographers like Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, Jack Delano, Dorothea Lange, Carl Mydans, Gordon Parks, John Vachon and Marion Post Walcott (among others) were hired by the U.S. government to document the country during this trying time. With the nation sorely in need of economic stimulus, the government set about creating jobs, including putting photographers to work. The young photographers travelled the country, living in their cars, capturing this pivotal time with their 4″x5″, 2 1/4″ and 35mm cameras.

As a government funded project these images are in the public domain, free of copyright. They are housed at the Library of Congress archives prints and photographs collection in Washington, DC, and are available as digital downloads online. Prints may also be ordered from the LOC for a nominal fee, giving us all the opportunity to own a piece of history. I’ve had the personal pleasure of combing through the archives in DC as part of a photo exhibit I helped curate some years ago. Flipping through the file drawers of images, watching the past unfold through the vision of so many talented photographers was (and remains) truly inspirational. I need to go back, just so I can hold those silver prints in my hands once again.

There are many exciting things happening in photography right now but we’re nothing without our history. These photographers braved many hardships to explore a nation that had never been explored in such an all-encompassing way and all photographers benefit from this collection, whether in the US or not. With prophotolife readers around the globe, are there any other such collections anyone is aware of? Government or newspaper archives that tell an especially poignant time in a nation’s photographic history?

I hope you get a chance to check out the Library of Congress website. In addition to the many photographic and illustration archives, there are also important recorded audio histories there. It’s a treasure trove of information…and it belongs to us all.