OSI-WPA/Yale
Some of the most legendary images of America during the 1930s and 1940s were taken by photographers working for the Farm Security Agency-Office of War Information. The New Deal agency employed photographers like Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, and Walker Evans. The agency’s more than 170,000 photos, which are archived include many holiday scenes; here are few that show Americans shopping, celebrating, traveling, and making the best of tough times.
Shoppers and children at the R.H. Macy department store, New York City, December 1942. Photographs by Marjory Collins FSA-OWI/Yale
A Christmas tree over the door of a bar in Philadelphia, 1938. Photograph by Paul Vanderbilt
FSA-OWI/Yale
Children eating Christmas dinner on a farm near Smithfield, Iowa, December 1936. Photograph by Russell Lee
FSA-OWI/Yale
Farm children wrapping presents, near Dickens, Iowa, December 1936. Photograph by Russel Lee
FSA-OWI/Yale
A woman at midnight mass on Christmas Eve in New York City, 1942. Photograph by Marjory Collins 1942
FSA-OWI/Yale
Scenes from the Christmas rush at the Greyhound bus depot in Washington, D.C., December 1941. Photographs by John Collier. FSA-OWI/Yale
Mr. and Mrs. Di Costanzo at their New York City restaurant on New Year’s Eve, December 1942. Photograph by Marjory Collins
FSA-OWI/Yale
FSA-OWI/Yale
