[Detail] Migrant agricultural worker

Collection Overview

FSA-OWI Photographs, 1935-1945, includes black and white photographs of rural and small-town America and scenes of the World War II mobilization effort. Many now-famous photographers created these pictures while employed by a Depression-era government program. Color photographs are another component of this collection.

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Special Features

These online exhibits provide context and additional information about this collection.

• Documenting America: Photographers on Assignment
• Portrait Sampler of FSA Photographers
• Selected FSA-OWI Images: Popular Requests and Staff Selections

Historical Eras

These historical era(s) are best represented in the collection although they may not be all-encompassing.

• The Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945

Related Collections and Exhibits

These collections and exhibits contain thematically-related primary and secondary sources. Also browse the Collection Finder for more related material on the American Memory Web site.

• American Life Histories, 1936-1940
• California Gold: Folk Music from the Thirties, 1938-1940
• Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During World War II

Other Resources

Recommended additional sources of information.

There are currently no other resources for this collection

Search Tips

Specific guidance for searching this collection.

Black and white and color images may be searched separately or together. See the combined search page for a description of what is searched.

The black and white images in the collection represent negatives made into prints as well as "Killed" images, those not selected for printing. "Killed" images have no captions and therefore cannot be searched. To see these images, search for your subject. On the bibliographic page of a captioned image, select "Display Images with Neighboring Call Numbers" to see related "Killed" images. See Materials in the Collection and Access to Them for more information/

The Subject Index in the black and white images has a state designation before the subject term. Use this index for examples of subject terms, then search by keyword to find all instances in which the term appears. Searching by place or topic will be more successful than searching by a specific date.

For a list of photographers, go to Photographers of the FSA: Selected Portraits. For help with general search strategies, see Finding Items in American Memory.