Between 1935 and 1944, a group of photographers working for the federal government fanned out across the country to record American life in pictures. This massive photographic project was carried out primarily under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and the Office of War Information (OWI). In their FSA-OWI collection, The Library of Congress has accumulated over 164,000 photographs documenting the cultural environment and sense of national identity during the worst years of the Depression.
The Times of Sorrow and Hope website features a complete catalog of Pennsylvania photographs from the FSA-OWI collection. The catalog represents photographs taken by close to forty photographers in nearly two hundred Pennsylvania towns, villages, cities, and landmarks. This convenient resource is the result of a highly productive collaboration between the University Libraries and the Penn State University Press. Together, the website and book offer a unique, comprehensive visual and written record of Pennsylvania history as the state struggled through one of its darkest periods and confronted new economic, political, and social challenges.
About the Book
In May 2003, the Pennsylvania State University Press published a book entitled Times of Sorrow and Hope: Documenting Everyday Life in Pennsylvania During the Depression and World War II: A Photographic Record, by Allen Cohen and Ronald L. Filippelli, with a Foreword by Miles Orvell. This book, part of the Press’s Keystone Series, features 150 selected images from the approximately 6,000 Pennsylvania photographs. The images cover themes ranging from coal mining, steelworkers, and women in wartime industries to cities and small towns, farm life, family life, and life among the Amish and Mennonites. The book also includes an essay introducing the FSA-OWI project, an introduction to the catalog of the entire collection of Pennsylvania photographs, and a historical essay on Pennsylvania during the Great Depression and World War II.
Guides to the Collection
Collection Catalog
- (incl. Others/Unidentified)
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