Exhibition of Color Photographs of America

Friday, 09 September 2005 12:33

WASHINGTON, DC.-“ Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943 ” is the first major exhibition of the little-known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Featuring 70 digital prints made from color transparencies taken between 1939 and 1943, this exhibition provides an unusual record of a period in American history previously seen only in black and white. These vivid full-color portraits capture the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small-town populations, the nation’s tireless efforts to overcome economic challenges and its patriotic response to mobilization for World War II. The photographs in “Bound for Glory,” many by famed photographers such as John Vachon, Jack Delano, Russell Lee, and Marion Post Wolcott, document not only the subjects in the pictures, but also the dawn of a new era—the Kodachrome era. These colorful images mark a historic divide in visual presentation between the monochrome world of the pre-modern age and the brilliant hues of the present. Approximately one dozen photographers were employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and its successor agency, the Office of War Information (OWI), from 1935 through 1944. The original goal of the government project was to record, through documentary photographs, the ravages of the Depression on America’s rural population and were intended to spur Congress and the American public to support government relief efforts. The 70 images in the exhibition were chosen from 175 photographs found in “Bound for Glory,” a 192-page hardcover book published in 2004 by the Library in association with Harry N. Abrams Inc. This companion publication includes a Library of Congress reference number for each of the photographs, which allows readers to search for the specific image online or order photographic prints from the Library’s Photoduplication Service (www.loc.gov/preserv/pds).

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