During the Great Depression and the entry to World War II, the Farm Security Administration—Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) sent photographers all over the country to document the recovery efforts of the New Deal. A group of researchers from Yale University has just released 170,000 digitized photos from this effort, creating an incredible and publicly accessible record of the times. Even better, the photos are organized by location, topic and photographer, are very easy to search and are mostly in the public domain.
Here's a photo from our market area - the abandoned town of Keota, Colorado, located in the Pawnee National Grasslands, photographed by Arthur Rothstein in October 1939. Continued crop failures left just a couple of dilapidated structures sitting on the prairie, with no indication of what was once a thriving small town.
This is an interesting browse for anyone interested in photography, the history of these challenging times, or possibly a source for some creative marketing. Check it out:
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