My professor of Intro to American Studies, recently tipped me off to this great resource, and place to get potential gifts for people who enjoy photography. However, this can be taken a step further to include foodies. The resource is the Library of Congress's digital collection of photographs. The ones that I am thinking of are the FSA (Farm Security Administration) photographs that were taken during the Great Depression throughout rural America.
There are many wonderful photographs, including the famous "Migrant Mother" by Dorothea Lange available on the site. The coolest part of the site, after you have spent considerable hours getting lost in thought while sorting through the amazing images, is that they are all available for purchase! Yep, you can buy a copy of any of the images that
you find, on archival paper for under $25.
This is a terrific gift documenting a fantastic project undertaken by some amazingly talented photographers showcasing the resourcefulness, pride, and history of rural American farmers. For anyone who doesn't know about the FSA photographers....it was a government department that sought to document and prove to congress and the public alike the problems experienced by rural farmers and the success that the New Deal programs were having.
During it's existance, the department, run by Roy Stryker, produced a collection of 80,000 photographs. He hired many talented photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein, John Vachon, Russell Lee, Marion Post Wolcott and John Collier, Jr.
Certainly, Styker's overarching goal was to create a visual encyclopedia of America, but he concentrated the focus of the photographers on rural worker, many of them migrant farm workers, to show how central agriculture was to the economy.
To check out the extensive collection of photographs and for ordering info, here is the link to the website: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
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