Manzanar

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
[Internees reading newspapers,
Manzanar Relocation Center]
Gelatin silver print, 1943
Prints & Photographs Division
Gift of the photographer, 1965 (72.1)

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
[Street Scene, Manzanar Relocation Center]
Gelatin silver print, 1943
Prints & Photographs Division
Gift of the photographer, 1965 (72))

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government evacuated 110,000 Pacific Coast residents of Japanese descent to internment camps in the interior of the United States. Photographer Ansel Adams, aggrieved by this harsh policy, visited the Manzanar Relocation Center near the Sierra Mountains in 1943 and photographed how citizens "had overcome the sense of defeat and despair by building . . . a vital community." Originally published in Born Free and Equal (1944), almost all of these prints and negatives were deposited by Adams at the Library for posterity.

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
[Manzanar street scene, Winter,
Manzanar Relocation Center]
Gelatin silver print, 1943
Prints & Photographs Division
Gift of the photographer, 1965 (72.3)
LC-DIG-ppprs-00283