Life in rural America — Early 1940s

(December 18, 2013) Included here are a handful of interesting color pictures, part of a much larger collection of images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information taken in the early '40s.

They are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations.

We found some interesting shots depicting transportation and scenes of downtown America in the years leading up to World War II and during the first year or two of that conflict.

The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

In top photo, Trucks outside of a starch factory in Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine, October 1940 (Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

On main street of Cascade, Idaho, July 1941 (Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Road cut into the barren hills, which lead into Emmett, Idaho, July 1941 (Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Wisdom, Montana, April 1942 (Reproduction from color slide. Photo by John Vachon. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

A crossroads store, bar, "juke joint," and gas station in the cotton plantation area. Melrose, Louisiana, June 1940. (Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Street corner. Dillon, Montana, August 1942 (Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Hay stack with automobiles of peach pickers. Delta County, Colorado, 1940. (Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Russell Lee. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)