Yale launches online database of Depression/War Era Photos

[pawineguy]

I have spent a small amount of time exploring, and so far the most interesting feature is bringing up the interactive map and clicking on your home county, or just picking a geographic area of interest. Pretty amazing project.

http://photogrammar.yale.edu

"During the Great Depression, The Farm Security Administration—Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) hired photographers to travel across America to document the poverty that gripped the nation, hoping to build support for New Deal programs being championed by F.D.R.’s administration.

Legendary photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Arthur Rothstein took part in what amounted to the largest photography project ever sponsored by the federal government. All told, 170,000 photographs were taken, then catalogued back in Washington DC. The Library of Congress became their eventual resting place.

Yale University has launched Photogrammar, a sophisticated web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing these 170,000 historic photographs.

The Photogrammar platform gives you the ability to search through the images by photographer. Do a search for Dorothea Lange’s photographs, and you get over 3200 images, including the now iconic photograph at the bottom of this post.

Photogrammar also offers a handy interactive map that lets you gather geographical information about 90,000 photographs in the collection."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Excellent resource -- the FSA photos are one of the New Deal's greatest legacies. Yale needs a fact-checker, though -- the OWI didn't exist during the Depression, they were formed in 1942 as the official US wartime propaganda agency, and absorbed the FSA's photographic unit for their own photo projects.

 

[pawineguy]

Excellent resource -- the FSA photos are one of the New Deal's greatest legacies. Yale needs a fact-checker, though -- the OWI didn't exist during the Depression, they were formed in 1942 as the official US wartime propaganda agency, and absorbed the FSA's photographic unit for their own photo projects.

Apparently they were consolidated at one point into a single collection by the OWI, and includes photos taken by the OWI up through 1945, as well as a small collection of photos from 1946. It's explained in better detail on the site but it's awkwardly worded elsewhere.

 

[Fading Fast]

Pawineguy - thank you for posting. Awesome resource. And, as you said, the interactive map is fantastic. Just saw a great shot of my Dad's hometown that I had never seen before.

 

[VictorShadow]

Thanks for posting this. I just spent the last hour exploring the site and it's fantastic. Very inspiring!

 

[pawineguy]

Pawineguy - thank you for posting. Awesome resource. And, as you said, the interactive map is fantastic. Just saw a great shot of my Dad's hometown that I had never seen before.

2800 photos of NYC alone, I can't wait to wade through all of those.

 

[pawineguy]

One of my favorites so far, War Era, not Depression Era. That shirt (which to him was just a work shirt to get dirty I'm sure) is unbelievable. From near my home area of Newark NJ.

 

[Fading Fast]

2800 photos of NYC alone, I can't wait to wade through all of those.

I'm going to loose a good chunk of time to this. Fantastic.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of my favorites so far, War Era, not Depression Era. That shirt (which to him was just a work shirt to get dirty I'm sure) is unbelievable. From near my home area of Newark NJ.

View attachment 36404

My oh my. I remember people wearing that shirt to church. With a tie.

 

[LizzieMaine]

This wall is about sixty feet from where I'm sitting right now. The sign's long gone, as is the Fireproof Garage, which was torn down last winter to build a poncy art museum. You can, however, still see the holes where the sign was mounted.

 

[Feraud]

I'm going to loose a good chunk of time to this. Fantastic.

Ain't it the truth!

 

[Fading Fast]

This is only a few blocks away from where I live. Later today / tomorrow, I'll go out and try to take a current picture to post for comparison. I could be wrong, but I think the "jut-out" for the little lunch place is still there.

 

[tonyb]

New car batteries for $3.45. My, how times have changed. I just paid a tad over a C note for a "budget" battery.

 

[pawineguy]

The search function works well also, I've plugged in things like baseball, civilian air patrol, etc...

 

[Fading Fast]

This is only a few blocks away from where I live. Later today / tomorrow, I'll go out and try to take a current picture to post for comparison. I could be wrong, but I think the "jut-out" for the little lunch place is still there.

Sorry it took a bit, but I finally got a shot of the same building (it's still there!) and, yes, as I thought, the "bump out" lunch place is still there as well.

Owing to a large truck parked across the street, I couldn't take the shot from the same angle, but you can see from the windows and other details, it's the same building. Oddly, there is almost no advertising on the building today (versus the full-force-gale advertising on the 1930's shot) - which surprised me as it seems that advertising is taking over everything today.

The second shot I took is of the factory building across the street that can be seen in the far left of the original shot. As you can see, the exterior has been "refinished," but based on the windows, you can tell it is the same building (looks better to me as a factory, but that's just me).

 

[pawineguy]

Sorry it took a bit, but I finally got a shot of the same building (it's still there!) and, yes, as I thought, the "bump out" lunch place is still there as well.

Owing to a large truck parked across the street, I couldn't take the shot from the same angle, but you can see from the windows and other details, it's the same building. Oddly, there is almost no advertising on the building today (versus the full-force-gale advertising on the 1930's shot) - which surprised me as it seems that advertising is taking over everything today.

The second shot I took is of the factory building across the street that can be seen in the far left of the original shot. As you can see, the exterior has been "refinished," but based on the windows, you can tell it is the same building (looks better to me as a factory, but that's just me).

I missed this when you posted, very cool comparison. I've continued to spend time going through these pics and I love that they are all so high quality. (since they were taken by top photographers)

 

[Fading Fast]

I missed this when you posted, very cool comparison. I've continued to spend time going through these pics and I love that they are all so high quality. (since they were taken by top photographers)

Agreed, the quality (and quantity) are incredible. I did one speed through and am now going back through them slowly.

As to the above street scene, I noticed yesterday that there are a few places where the macadam is worn away and you can still see the cobblestones that are visible (owing to the high quality of the originals) in the lower right-hand side.

And I know I mentioned it earlier, but I am amazed that there was so much more loud and aggressive advertising on the building in the original versus today as I am guilty of always thinking that advertising is increasing its presence everywhere.