Farm Security Administration Photos at the New York Public Library

Lee Russell

Here is a fascinating story about the Farm Security Administration, Roy Stryker, the Library of Congress, and the New York Public Library. I came across this story on the New York Times site called Lens. 


During the 30s and 40s Roy Stryker, who founded the FSA during the Great Depression, wanted photographers to document the farm communities and the rural poor for future generations. He sent photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Russell Lee to travel the United States and create this visual history. Photographers sent their photos back to Stryker and he forwarded them to Romana Javitz who was then head of the New York Public Library's Picture Collection. The collection he forwarded to her had about 41,000 prints in its archive.


Stryker was nervous about sending them to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., he was afraid these photographs would get lost among everything else being handled there so that is how they ended up getting sent to Javitz in NYC. Then in the mid 1940s, the Library of Congress established the Farm Security/Administration Office of War Information Photograph Collections. This collection's archive had about 175,000 negatives and 1,600 color transparencies. The Washington archive became the authoritative source for the images.


Yes, the images in New York were forgotten about and anyway it was assumed that all the image sin NY were in Washington. The incredible part is, the prints in the New York Public Library were being lent out to the public. Anyone with a NY Public library card could check out a Dorothea Lange photo put a piece of tape on it and stick it to their wall. So some were damaged, and yes, some were never returned.


It was only in 2005 that Stryker's donated prints were cataloged and it was then discovered that some of the photos in the NY collection were not among the negatives at the Library of Congress. The New York Public Library digitized more than 1,000 images that aren't in the LC online catalog and they created a special NYPL site for these photos. In addition they created another site containing the records, no images for all 41,000 FSA photos in their collection.


You can read and see more at the Lens site.


Below is a small selection of books from the photography collection in the Arts Division, there are many more on this subject and these photographers.

Killed: Rejected Images of the Farm Security Administration

The Likes of Us: Photography and the Farm Security Administration

FSA: The American Vision 

Dust Bowl Descent 

Migrant Mother: How a Photograph Defined the Great Depression

Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits

The Photographs of Russell Lee

Russell Lee Photographs: Images from the Russell Lee Photograph Collection at the Center for American History 

Walker Evans: Decade by Decade

Walker Evans: Photographer of America

Library of Congress: American Memory Site for Images and Music

If you are looking for images that document the history of our country try using the American Memory site at the Library of Congress. Many Americans aren't exactly sure what the Library of Congress is or what it does. LOC is the research library for Congress and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. It is the largest library in the world by shelf space and number of books. The head of the Library is the Librarian of Congress, currently James H. Billington.


Not only does the LOC have a huge digitized collection but they also have many digital and sound collections that are free to use. One of the many collections is the American Memory collection. This collection provides free access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. 


The collection is divided into subject areas such as advertising, African American history, culture and folklife, performing arts and music and women’s history, but there are many more categories available for searching. The collection provides access to digital images of the sheet music and the sheet music covers. Here is some sheet music from their Civil War collection.

Along with the thousands of images provided, they also provide access to music. For example from their African American Music 1938-1943 recording site you can listen to approximately one hundred sound recordings of blues and gospel music.

Another collection at the LOC for music is National Jukebox, historical recordings you can listen to free of charge. 

You can listen to an example here:

Make use of the collections at The Library Of Congress. They are free and for all of us to make use of.

William Gottlieb’s Iconic Photos of Jazz Greats, 1938-1948

William Gottlieb’s Iconic Photos of Jazz Greats

William Gottlieb  (January 28, 1917 – April 23, 2006) was a young reporter in the 1930s. Gottlieb was also self-taught photographer and he set out on his own to photograph the jazz scene when his employer the Washington Post refused him the equipment or budget to take these photos. From 1938-1945 he documented the jazz scene in Washington, D.C. and in New York City which resulted in iconic portraits of jazz greats. Gottlieb took most of his photos while these performers played or sang at well-known New York City jazz clubs. 

This series known as The Golden Age of Jazz includes 219 of these stunning portraits. The collection includes photos of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gilespie, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, and Mister, Billie Holiday’s dog, too.

These portraits entered the public domain on 2010 and can be seen online through the Library of Congress who has also included footage of Gottlieb speaking about his subjects.

Some selections from the Central Library's collection: