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Slideshow: Kodachrome Slides From the Farm Security Administration

Kodachrome might be gone, but these high-resolution slides preserve the food and life of Depression-era America in color.

Peter Smith
By Peter SmithJan 12, 2011
Peter Smith
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Of the 145,000 photographs made by photographers employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in the 1930s and 1940s, relatively few were reproduced widely and most of those iconic documentary images frame the Depression in black-and-white images of dispossessed rural people. Still, close to 2,000 frames were shot with the relatively new technology: 4 by 5 Kodachrome slide film.

And as the very last rolls of Kodachrome are being developed this month at Dwayne's Photo Parsons, Kansas, it’s worth looking at these images again—as a colorful a visual record of small-town life and everyday existence. They're a compelling portrait of what America ate and make a great companion to Mark Kurlansky's The Food of a Younger Land.

All the images are property of the Library of Congress and can be found in Bound for Glory: America in Color.

technologymediacultureartphotographyslideshowkodachromefood-of-a-younger-landfsajack-delanobound-for-glorylibrary-of-congressfarm-security-administrationfood and drink

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