My Venture Into The Art/Business of Tattooing by Hylott L. Armstrong, Jr. At a very early age I became fascinated with tattoos. I don’t know and can’t explain why, but I was. I marveled at the images that never wore off of the skin of some people. How did they do that? How does it […]
A comic strip created a national phenomenon across the America in the late 1930’s that is still celebrated today. Women inviting men out on a date is more accepted today, but this was almost unheard of before 1937. Alfred Gerald Capp’s was the writer for a popular hillbilly comic strip, Li’l Abner in the 1930s. […]
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 […]
Can you believe that sometimes children as young as twelve worked in coal mines? When photographer John Vachon visited the coal mine town of Kempton, Maryland-West Virginia in May 0f 1939, he took outstanding photographs of the people in the small company town, including these of some of the coal miner’s children. They give us a […]
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 […]
These photographs taken by Russell Lee in July 1942 document the efforts of the energetic residents of Ola, Idaho and show the backbone of America. Russell Lee reported “Some of the members are in the armed services and others are working in war factories and others are helping neighbors who are haying. One member of […]
Ola, Idaho applied and received for two loans from the Government to open a cooperative sawmill to save the town from economic ruin. Their efforts paid off and when photographer Russell Lee returned to the town in 1942, the smiles on faces of the citizens of Ola reveal their success. Member of the Ola self-help […]
