Children living in the coal mining town of Kempton, Maryland-West Virginia had difficulty finding a place to play as these photographs taken May 1939 by photographer John Vachon reveal. Children playing in street of company town. Kempton, West Virginia Children playing in street of company town, Kempton, West Virginia. Note open ditches Children playing in […]
In May, 1939, photographer John Vachon visited the coal-mining town of Kempton, Maryland-West Virginia when the miners were on a 30 day strike before their annual contract was renewed. The song below, We Done Quit, was sung by Sam Johnson and recorded by George G. Korson at the Scott’s Mine in West Virginia in 1940. […]
The Kempton, Maryland-West Virginia coal mine has been abandoned. None of the miners were expecting it In early April 1950 a notice was placed in the window at the company store that the mines would close in a week. None of the miners were expecting this. “At midnight April 15, 1950, the Buxton & Landstreet […]
While operating a small shanty that served hot beverages and snacks on a frozen river to tourists that were visiting the “Ice bridge”, a man heard the ice below him tremble and he immediately sensed disaster. The morning was said to be a cold and misty one, the weather and the time of day, about noon, perhaps limiting […]
Migrant workers to Barrien, Michigan made the best of their lives under difficult living conditions in 1940. These photographs taken by photo/journalists John Vachon reveal what their lives were like. Photographs show migrant agricultural workers, and families from Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, Texas harvesting cherries and strawberries. They lived in miserable housing in company […]
The Great Depression hit Idaho hard. From 1929 to 1932, the income of the average Idahoan dropped nearly fifty percent. Photographer Dorothea Lange visited Gem County’s Squaw Creek Valley, Ola, Idaho in October and November 1939 and took many pictures of the residents. These photographs reveal Idaho’s social history during the Depression and early war years. […]
The picturesque town of Ola, Idaho was an isolated community due to impassable roads much of the winter and this created significant problems for them during the Great Depression. Ola is an unincorporated community in Gem County, Idaho, United States. It is located approximately 30 miles north of Emmett. Carroll Baird homesteaded along Squaw Creek, less than […]
The garment industry is one of the oldest and largest export industries. We often hear of sweatshops and under age workers in other countries, but there was a time in America when sweatshops were common as well as those who worked at home and required their children to assist in the work. The photographs below […]
The Coffren Store in Maryland is a rare example of a well-preserved, mid 19th-century general merchandise store. Small local stores of this type one-room utilitarian structures including a Post Office once commonly dotted the rural landscape of the county. Most have long since disappeared, and the few others remaining have been altered. The Coffren Store […]
Erosion of land was a major problem in Georgia during the 1930’s along with the depression. Marion Post Walcott visited Georgia and documented the economic difficulties residents had with photographs Her photographs provide a glimpse of life in rural Georgia in 1939. The descriptions included with the photographs are hers. Farmer in overalls pointing toward eroded […]
