Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Me. Schools do not open until the potatoes are harvested (LOC)

Delano, Jack,, photographer.

Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Me. Schools do not open until the potatoes are harvested

1940 Oct.

1 slide : color.

Notes:
 Title from FSA or OWI agency caption.
Transfer from U.S. Office of War Information, 1944.

Subjects:
 Potatoes
Harvesting
Child labor
United States--Maine--Caribou
United States--Maine--Aroostook County

Format: Slides--Color

Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication.

Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print

Part Of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection 11671-4 (DLC) 93845501

General information about the FSA/OWI Color Photographs is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsac

Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a33844

Call Number: LC-USF35-63

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    Erik Mallinson, beccanne, alrevez, silsurf, and 169 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. kevan can't! (60 months ago | reply)

    This totally puts my own family archives to shame. Awesome.

  3. nobleaj8 (60 months ago | reply)

    Not too much has changed in the county...

  4. jdkullmann (60 months ago | reply)

    Man that poor kid on the right sure sure looks unhappy. Guess I can't blame him.

  5. Nori the Good Witch of Design (60 months ago | reply)

    These pictures are wonderful!!! This is the first one I got to tag, and I found it oddly exciting. :)

  6. h_dwight_beers (60 months ago | reply)

    This is how I made my first $14.00 some 60 years ago!

  7. Judith Bursott (60 months ago | reply)

    Outstanding!

  8. h_dwight_beers (60 months ago | reply)

    Addendum: As I recall, the schools do actually open a few weeks before picking season and close again for two weeks.

  9. MarkColman (60 months ago | reply)

    Them's was the days when chilrens worked fer a livin!

  10. José X (60 months ago | reply)

    a great capture of life
    have a very good day

  11. maapu (60 months ago | reply)

    wow, taken 1940!!!

    --
    Seen on your photo stream. (?)

  12. Totoro's mom (60 months ago | reply)

    I grew up in Geneva Switzerland in the 1960's and we always had a week off in October: "Les Vacances de Patates" left over from the days when everyone had to take off school to pick potatoes. I just checked online and it looks like that's still being done! I only had one classmate who had to go pick potatoes at his grandmother's farm during my entire school years, the rest of us just enjoyed our break. This brought back memories!

  13. 77krc (60 months ago | reply)

    Wow, absolutely vivid photographs!

  14. ya3hs3 (60 months ago | reply)

    Amazing photo - I picked potatoes as a high school freshman in Madawaska Maine in 1975. School started in Madawaska in mid-August and then adjourned for two weeks in September for the potato harvest. All the kids picked and made some extra money. It is hard work but not onerous; the tractor goes along the rows and turns over the potato plants, exposing the potatoes, and the pickers come behind with their baskets and gather the potatoes. Great photos to have available!

  15. Olinad Rellse (60 months ago | reply)

    this 'human interest' is really 'awesome' during the world war ll eras, you can survive eating potatoes in the whole year, wthout rice. potato a native of pacific slopes of s. america, in 16th c., with roundish or oval starch containing tubers used for food. batata or sweet potato, is widely known in the philippine island, brought to table and used for food. biggest plantation of potato in the philippines is in northern luzon.

  16. glassmelter05 [deleted] (60 months ago | reply)

    I grew up in southern Minnesota in the 50s. I was probably 5-6 yrs. old. In the fall after the potato fields had been harvested, they allowed people to come in and collect the potatoes that the machines had missed. I can still remember the cold cloudy day, playing with my brothers in the furrows of the field, throwing clods of dirt at each other, instead of picking up potatoes, and getting yelled at by my Mom.

  17. fotos-de-alejandra [deleted] (60 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Social Documentary Photography & events, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

  18. ciderandrye (60 months ago | reply)

    I love their caps! Great photo.

    Thank you Library of Congress!

  19. AlinaShots (60 months ago | reply)

    Now I love the past even more!! It had colors!!

  20. miguelitostrikes (60 months ago | reply)

    yeah, they still close schools up there for harvest...but it probably wont last much longer what with immigrant labor, factory farms, and the dwindling of the family potato enterprise in maine.

  21. tofu_minx (60 months ago | reply)

    the emotion in this photo is beautiful..
    the color emotion with the antique lomo flavor matches the subjects.

  22. lukegilman (60 months ago | reply)

    Yeah, not much has changed.... I graduated from Presque Isle in '97 and remember those days all too well. Sun up to sun down for a buck a barrel; don't think I ever cracked more than $16 in a day. It was good inspiration to find some inside work.

  23. kberberat (60 months ago | reply)

    The most gorgeous interiors and beautiful building in Washington. Love your site and great to see you here. This is the best use of the internet! Thank you LOC for doing this.

  24. MICHAEL G. SEAMANS (60 months ago | reply)

    my father grew up in Aroostoock County during that era and has a tremendous slide collection.

  25. //alexandre\\ (60 months ago | reply)

    Fantastic !
    Nice picture 1

  26. Deb Ebbeling (60 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Maine Photography, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

    This photo is true, even today. Kids are excused to plant and harvest ~ it's amazing. When I was a kid growing up, Dad would plant potatoes and it was so much fun harvesting them - trying to see who got the biggest spud, or who hit the mother load....It brings back good memories :) Thank you...

  27. JTD Images (60 months ago | reply)

    "nobleaj8 says: Not too much has changed in the county..." Ha! I love living in Maine...

  28. sandra.d. (60 months ago | reply)

    it's great to see natural, non cloned, health food!

  29. shellygrrl (60 months ago | reply)

    many northern maine schools open up in mid-august; and most still let their students out for harvest, although these days the vacation doesn't last as long for some schools. some let students out for one week, others for two, and a few for three (from mid-september till the day after columbus day is observed).

  30. da70 (60 months ago | reply)

    This is really special to see. I can't wait to see what pictures show up here. Welcome to flickr Library of Congress.

  31. fmason41 (60 months ago | reply)

    a time when everyone worked. honest work was not looked down upon-and you could live on the honest work you did. today honest work means you live in a slum.

  32. Starlisa (59 months ago | reply)

    remarkable photograph! great color and detail...
    I remember picking beans for a while as a teenager, it gave me something to do to earn some spending money for clothes and such... we never had too much.

    this project is wonderful!

  33. MEtoAK (59 months ago | reply)

    Ahh yes a Presque Isle graduate of 2003 and it was still the same when I was there just with machines mostly now. Every fall everyone gets 3 weeks off school just for harvest.

  34. David G Photography (59 months ago | reply)

    This is why farm families had many kids, to help on the farm. Sometime in the last 50 years kids went from being sources of labor to sources of work. Now days, parents are excited to see their kids go back to school so they can focus again on work...

  35. Elizabeth 58 (59 months ago | reply)

    I feel so fortunate to have been born and raised in the potato fields of Caribou, Maine. What a wonderful opportunity to learn a good work ethic and earn money for clothes for school. We were never cold and were well dressed at the same time. My dad was the digger and the overseer of the whole operation...he would have to get off of the bus to life some of the children into the bus. Sometimes he would let the men run over a barrel to build a fire to warm up our toes and fingers while waiting for the hard frost to melt on the ground so that he could dig and we could pick!! Betty Bubar Collins

  36. ZiKiarts (59 months ago | reply)

    My heart potatoes :
    www.flickr.com/photos/12826779@N02/

  37. HESIOD (59 months ago | reply)

    I REMBER "Erdäpfelklauben" DURING THE II. WAR.

  38. Debbie C.B.'s (59 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Potatoes!, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

  39. kankaku (59 months ago | reply)

    Wonderful picture!!!!

  40. teach311 (59 months ago | reply)

    Great picture - would the opening of school make the kids work harder or slow down?

  41. Jim'sLady (58 months ago | reply)

    biographical info on the photographer

    Museum of Contemporary Photography
    quote
    In addition to photography, Delano composed music. He died in Puerto Rico in 1997. Jack Delano was born Jack Ovcharov in Kiev, Ukraine on August 1, 1914. ...
    www.mocp.org/collections/permanent/delano_jac k.php

  42. Muddy LaBoue (58 months ago | reply)

    Wonderful!

    When I was growing up in North Carolina in the late 1960's and early 1970's, we always started school late because we had to wait for the tobacco harvest to be finished. After getting my start as a tractor driver who had to jump off the tractor to let someone else turn it at the ends of the rows, I worked on a tobacco harvester during my summers from age 11 to 16.

  43. heidiree (58 months ago | reply)

    I live in Caribou, ME and this was so weird to see! And yes, they still have the potato harvest school break!

  44. mystiestar (55 months ago | reply)

    Yes these 1914 hats are really back in style in 2008, I guess its sort of 'Retro' lol.

  45. sickstylez (54 months ago | reply)

    1940 wow, there you can see what 68 years can change.

  46. /go/rikka (52 months ago | reply)

    I've lived in coastal Maine for nine years, and rarely go inland...it's startling to see the differences.

  47. L8o (48 months ago | reply)

    Wow! ..unique shot! (and message :`)

    Please add a 'medium
    sized version' of your
    wonderful picture t o
    our 2 0 0 8 Campaign!

    Reach For A Star Campaign 2008

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    Seen by a Catchy Colors (blog) / FlickrSoup (blog) / CHILDREN'S PORTRAITS (blog) / Forsaken By Society (blog #1 , blog#2) / Everyone A Changemaker (blog) / Jewelry, Ornaments & Textiles (blog) admin.

  48. Cryptia. [deleted] (48 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called The frugal kitchen (photo's & recipes), and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  49. Made In Turkey (46 months ago | reply)

    expressive foto . beautiful

  50. wiggiewormdog (45 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called soulful group, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  51. wiggiewormdog (45 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called a new world, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

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