Light on White

Shadows and textures.

Photo taken by Arthur Rothstein in New Hampshire, 1936.

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[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: new, snow, fence

Let It Snow

Chillicothe, Ohio in 1940.

Photo by Arthur Rothstein.

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[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: snow, auto

High Water

The old John Denver song, "Take Me Home, Country Road" makes mention of the Shenandoah River - the floodwaters of which submerged this farm near Winchester, Virginia in March 1936.

This image also brings to mind Johnny Cash's line 'How high's the water, Mama?' in the song "Five Feet High and Rising".

Photo by Arthur Rothstein.

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[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: Winchester, flood, waters

Been Fishing

Conch shells and crawfish. Key West, Florida.

Photo taken in 1938 by Arthur Rothstein.

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[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: shells, crawfish

Mortgage Meltdown

News from the financial markets has been grim recently. This photo, taken in Jan. 1939, recalls the Great Depression. The caption supplied by photographer Arthur Rothstein is of particular interest:

"A shanty built of refuse near the Sunnyside slack pile, Herrin, Illinois. Many residences in southern Illinois coal towns were built with money borrowed from building and loan associations. During the depression building and loan associations almost all went into receivership. Their mortgages were sold for whatever they would bring, and the purchasers demolished houses by the hundreds in order to salvage the scrap lumber.

"The result is serious overcrowding and high rents in all the coal towns. A number of people can find no houses to rent, and are living in tents and shanties on the fringes of the town."

That this website is currently auctioning foreclosed American homes with starting bids as low as $1,000 is a chilling echo of those times.

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[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: shanty, mortgage

Nap Time

The collection contains hundreds of photos taken in nursery schools/day care centers from one end of America to the other. Some of the loveliest images record the quietest moments.


The above three images are from an Arizona nursery school. They were taken by Russell Lee, in April 1940.

Belle Glade, Florida. Feb. 1941. (Taken by Marion Post Wolcott)


Woodville, California. March 1942. (Russell Lee)


The above photo was taken in Feb. 1942, in Harlingen, Texas, by Arthur Rothstein. During the same month he shot these final three in Sinton, Texas:






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[American Memory link]
to locate images such as these use search terms: nursery, nap

Kitchen Scene

The caption accompanying this photo reads: "Kitchen utensils in a Blue Ridge Mountain home. Virginia."

Taken by Arthur Rothstein in 1935, there's dignity in this photo - and a stark beauty. Nevertheless, the image is too gritty to qualify as contemporary "country kitchen chic."

For all the nostalgia we feel about those who led simpler lives in bygone eras, this photo makes it clear that such lives were frequently materially impoverished.

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[American Memory link]

to locate this image, use search terms: kitchen, utensils, Virginia