The U.S Farm Security Administration: Documenting America

A store with live fish for sale, vicinity of Natchitoches, La. (by Marion Post) A cross roads store, bar, 'juke joint', and gas station in the cotton plantation area, Melrose, La. (by Marion Post)

The U.S Farm Security Administration was established in 1935 to help combat the spreading poverty caused by the Great Depression. The Administration's photography programme sent several photographers across the country to document the plight of the poor farmers (probably the best known of these photographers being Dorothea Lange).

The vast archive of images is held by the Library of Congress; the Library has recently uploaded the colour images taken for the FSA (and also some from the Office of War Information) to Flickr. The FSA's black and white images are also viewable at the Library's web site, (although be warned: the user interface is extremely unfriendly).