March 1940. "Grocery store and filling station in the high plains. Dawson County, Texas." Medium format negative by Russell Lee. View full size.

August 1939. "Oilfield truck driver and his son sitting on front porch. Seminole, Oklahoma." Happy Father's Day from Shorpy! Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

September 1939. "Detail of front of combined filling station and grocery store. Questa, New Mexico." Gasoline, caffeine, nicotine, protein. Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

September 1939. "Market and grocery in Questa, New Mexico." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

September 1939. "Service station run by former resident of Oklahoma in Questa, New Mexico. Oklahoma newspapers as well as other Oklahoma products are for sale here." Photo by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Admin. View full size.

October 1939. "Railroad crossing near Shaftsbury, Vermont." Medium format negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

July 1939. "Sign tacked to pole near the post office. Main street, Pittsboro, North Carolina." This photo by Dorothea Lange, which has attracted no small amount of bemused commentary over the years, requires two avenues of explanation. The first is that Lange was a connoisseur of quirky signage, snapping away at whatever outre malapropism, mangled spelling or jarring juxtaposition might present itself by the side of the road (see here, here, here, here and here; there are dozens more). The second is that "piccolo" was Depression-era slang for jukebox or nickelodeon; a piccolo party's dancing was to canned music rather than a live band. Hence the PICKLE-LOW PARTY that will go on forever, thanks to the combined efforts of G.W. Leach, A.A. Hopkins and D. Lange. View full size.

September 1939. "Ernest W. Kirk Jr. with his two sons on their farm near Ordway, Colorado. They hold fruits of their farm, coming from their labor, which has placed them in a few months from almost hopeless condition to a family with net worth approaching a thousand dollars." Medium format negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.