The Great Depression in Color: What 1940 Actually Looked Like

Between 1935 and 1943 the United States government paid photographers to drive across the country and photograph its own people. Almost all of it came back in black and white, because black and white was the film they had. For twenty-two months — May 1939 to February 1941 — some of it came back in colour. This film is those colour plates, and the black-and-white government film of the same years, cut against each other. 00:00 Land that works 01:20 What the colour found 02:03 Ducktown 03:06 The year after 04:49 Belle Glade 05:21 Twenty-two months THE PHOTOGRAPHS — all United States federal works, public domain Marion Post Wolcott · Typical southeastern Georgia farm with newly harvested field of oats, May 1939 Marion Post Wolcott · Abandoned shacks, vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina, June 1939 Marion Post Wolcott · A church in a corn field, Manning, South Carolina, June 1939 Marion Post Wolcott · Copper mining section between Ducktown and Copperhill, Tennessee, September 1939 — "Fumes from smelting copper for sulfuric acid have destroyed all vegetation and eroded the land" Marion Post Wolcott · Copper mining and sulfuric acid plant, Copperhill, Tennessee, September 1939 (two frames) Marion Post Wolcott · Southeastern Georgia (1940) · Georgia oat field, Southern U.S. (1940) Marion Post Wolcott · A store with live fish for sale, vicinity of Natchitoches, Louisiana, July 1940 Marion Post Wolcott · Spreading fertilizer from a four-mule team wagon, Georgia, circa 1940 Marion Post Wolcott · Taking burley tobacco in from the fields, Russell Spears farm, vicinity of Lexington, Kentucky, September 1940 (two frames) Marion Post Wolcott · Farmers and townspeople in town on Court day, Campton, Kentucky, September 1940 Marion Post Wolcott · Houses condemned by the Board of Health, still occupied by Black migratory workers, Belle Glade, Florida, January 1941 Marion Post Wolcott · Migratory workers and one shack, Belle Glade, Florida, February 1941 THE FILM — all United States federal works, public domain "Sam Farmer's Cotton" (1938), U.S. Department of Agriculture — FedFlix / archive.org "The Living Land" (1941) — FedFlix / archive.org "Farm Scenes" (1937) — FedFlix / archive.org Every photograph and every film clip in this video is a work of the United States federal government and is in the public domain. Each item is listed above with its photographer or title, place and date. The captions quoted are the text held with the negative in the federal file. This video uses a synthetic voice. #GreatDepression #1930sAmerica #Kodachrome #History