US in Color 1939-43

[Randy]

These photos at this link should remind us of how important a camera is.
blogs.denverpost.com/captured/2010/07/26/captured-america-in-color-from-1939-1943/

[daveh]

What a superb series of photographs. The most mundane subject is often also the most interesting.

[pompiere]

Whenever I hear stories about events that occured before I was born, I always imagine them in black and white because almost all the pictures that I have seen are black and white. These pictures remind me that color was around before 1960.

[Deleted]

A wonderful glimpse at the way we were. I would be willing to give up virtually all modern conveniences (including computers and the Internet) if I we could return to those simpler times.

W.

[nikonbob]

Those are well done slides and it really makes you wonder how far we have come photographically since then, maybe not that far. Seeing these in colour somehow makes them seem more real or at least belonging more to the present instead of the distant past. Strange associating colour with modern/present and B&W with the past/old.

Bob

[John Parry]

Wow - all those trilbys!

Great photographers those.

Didn't the 'trimming cotton' picture make you think "So that's where Tamla came from"? They had to be singing, and, for all their bodies to be aligned like that, 'dancing' as they worked. Lovely.

Regards - John

[mickeyobe]

A superb historical treasure trove.

Thank you.

Mickey

[photax]

I agree with Mickey ! Wonderful pictures that keeps the history alive. I like the " see Teddy the wrestling bear " picture , all you can see is a pelican Looking at these pictures, i hear some Carter Family and Bill Monroe songs
Can someone tell me the meaning of "homesteader" ? Never heard this word before.
Randy, have many thanks for this link.

MIK

[daveh]

Homesteader: a person who is self sufficient - having a bit of land, a small house (or shack) and growing his/her own crops and perhaps keeping a few animals. I am not sure if it a uniquely American/Canadian term, but I can't think of having heard it used of people elsewhere.

[pompiere]

MIK,

As the population of the US grew in the 1800s, the government would grant land in the unsettled west for little or no cost to any one who promised to live on it for five years. This policy was intended to promote westward expansion into the vast praries. Since Google Earth didn't exist, many of the settlers didn't know what they were getting into, and ended up trying to settle on poor soil or inhospitable conditions. Many of them abandoned their farms and gave the land back to the government. If they could manage to eke out a living for five years, the land would be theirs, free and clear. Many people gave up the crowded conditions in the cities for a chance to have their own property. I think that there may still be some unclaimed land available for homesteading.

Ron

[mickeyobe]

My mother's parents were called homesteaders. They arrived in The Northwest Territories, later Saskatchewan, in 1902.
They were told where to find their quarter section of land and had to trek to it with two children. My grandmother was pregnant with a third. It was, of course, wilderness. They worked the land, built, initially, a sod hut, with the help of the local First Nations People and created in that place (stead) a home for a family that grew to seven people.

I have always thought of a homestead as the land initially cleared and worked by the pioneer homesteader and which often, though not always, remained with the family for generations.

Mickey

[SidW]

Did anyone recognise themselves?

Homestead is OK in UK, meaning a farm.

The action (homesteading) and person (homesteader) are Morth American referring to land setlement according to special laws, as described by Wayne and Mickey.

The nearest to that in the UK is possibly the special 19th c legislation in Scotland to protect crofters (who were already holding land) from eviction.

[daveh]

SidW: "Did anyone recognise themselves?"

Sid, the same thought crossed my mind, and usually does with photos of a certain age. What will be true is that even the very youngest then will be coming up to 70 now.

Wayne, certainly simpler times and good times too if you were one of the haves. There are more haves in the world now, though (if only because there are more people): there are also probably more have nots, so while things have changed, they haven't. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, as they say en France.

[Deleted]

My parents both came from families where they didn't know when the Depression started because they already were dirt poor. But since they had very little, they appreciated what they had more than people do today who have nearly everything they could want. It shows in the faces of the people in those photographs. I miss the attitude of that generation.


W.

[PeterW]

Things never were, and never will be, as good as they used to be.

Even nostalgia's not what it was

PeterW