Agriculture

April 1939. "White migrant strawberry picker playing guitar in his tent near Hammond, Louisiana." Safety negative by Russell Lee. View full size.

January 1942. Guanica, Puerto Rico. "Burning a sugar cane field. This process destroys the leaves and makes the cane easier to harvest." Medium-format safety negative by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information. View full size.

I purchased this at a going-out-of-business sale at an antique store in downtown Paducah, Kentucky. The original photo isn't much larger than a business card; no markings to indicate time or place. The women seem preoccupied with something off to the side. The men seem flat-out annoyed. View full size.

July 1937. "Thirteen-year old sharecropper boy near Americus, Georgia." Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.

Grandma Moore and Jay Smiley picking cotton in OK around 1895. I don't know if this was their farm or if they picked cotton on a regular basis. But they seem to enjoy it. View full size.

July 1940. Berrien County, Michigan. "Migrant fruit workers from Arkansas." 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the FSA. View full size.

July 1940. "Near Shawboro, North Carolina. Group of Florida migrants on their way to Cranberry, New Jersey, to pick potatoes." Medium-format safety negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.