Depression Era Photographs

[gamgee]

Huck Finn posted this on SB. Pretty cool.

http://photogrammar.yale.edu/map/

[swampbilly]

Pretty cool

Took a walk back into time in the area I grew up

[TheRabbit]

That's cool. I've been looking through the Erie, NY file. So many Polish people.

[duke nukem]

That's cool. I've been looking through the Erie, NY file. So many Polish people.

It's a god damn Soviet INVASION!

[swampbilly]

That's cool. I've been looking through the Erie, NY file. So many Polish people.

Drop down a few counties..

Finally got to see the Cracker Box that the old folks usta speak of.

[TheRabbit]

Drop down a few counties..

Finally got to see the Cracker Box that the old folks usta speak of.

I did. I was checking out the Cattaraugus and Allegheny pics too. Not as many Polish. Lots of Irish.

[UnderTheStars]

Huck Finn posted this on SB. Pretty cool.

http://photogrammar.yale.edu/map/

I spent an entire Sunday earlier this year at this site. It's a treasure.

It includes the iconic "Migrant Mother" photo by Dorothea Lange. This photo became the face of the Great Depression. I read an article where Lange explains that day. Walking up to the family, the mother so destitute and resigned to her lot that it was if the photographer wasn't even on the radar. She began breast-feeding her baby because her baby had to eat. These were pea pickers and the crops failed. They were starving.

Link to photo series

She's only 32 years old here:

[Mayaca]

Simply amazing.

[Night]

My grandmother raised five kids during Depression. My mother wasn't born until long after. Kids had one set of school clothes. Clothes were washed by hand each night, starched and ironed (without electricity being used) for school the next day.

My friends grandfather once walked seven miles to work ten hours for a dollar and walked back home. They were so thankful for that dollar

[UnderTheStars]

Depression-era folks were thankful for every little thing. The further we get away from that time and mindframe, the more screwed we are.

Both my parents grew up during the depression. Both families were very poor. My mother's family raised chickens, gardened, sold eggs, vegetables... My grandparents had a still in the bathtub and sold booze during prohibition. My mother and her siblings weren't allowed to have friends use the bathroom if they came over. She'd overhear my grandmother saying, "Martie, you need to add more coloring" (caramel color for the booze).

The really old photos of my grandfather as a youth with his family - they looked well-to-do, lived in Manhattan.. Fast-forward to the Depression and they were all living a hardscrabble life. The whole family. Not many got through that time unscathed.

My dad worked in New York City as a very young boy. Any job he could get to help support the family. My parents both saw the bread lines, the devastation. Even as my dad's memory failed, he spoke clearly of those times, like it was etched into his mind.

That generation was thrifty and resourceful like nobody's business. It was a running joke in our house if the 'erl berner" (Jersey accent) was running - my dad didn't want the thermostat past "frigid". "Who touched the thermostat??? I hear the erl berner running..."

[UnderTheStars]

Going through the NYC photos... 1942

http://photogrammar.yale.edu/records...i2001012503/PP

[TheRabbit]

Dress a kid up like that today, and you would make national news.

[UnderTheStars]

Wizard training camp? WTF

http://photogrammar.yale.edu/records/index.php?record=fsa1998008018/PP

[Mayaca]

Wizard training camp? WTF

http://photogrammar.yale.edu/records/index.php?record=fsa1998008018/PP

Pagan ceremony as reimagined by them. See the "maypole" on the left?

[rover]

Huck Finn posted this on SB. Pretty cool.

http://photogrammar.yale.edu/map/

Cool site gamgee. Thanks for posting.