December 1941. "Cultivating tobacco at the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration experimental area, vicinity of Cayey." Medium format Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano, Office of War Information. View full size.

Puerto Rico, January 1938. "Workers in a tobacco field. The straw shed in the background is a hurricane shelter." View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Edwin Rosskam for the Farm Security Administration.

February 1939. "White mother with children at migrant camp. Weslaco, Texas." Background for this series of photos as recorded by Russell Lee in his notes: "Local employment men say that there was no need for migrant labor to handle the citrus and vegetable crops in the valley, the local supply of labor being ample for this purpose. Most of the local labor is Mexican and the labor contractors favor Mexican labor over white labor, partly because the Mexican will work much cheaper than whites. One white woman who was a permanent resident said that the white people who lived in the valley had no trouble with the Mexicans. The Mexicans were good neighbors, she said, always willing to share what they had. She said the white migrants who came into the valley and resented and misunderstood the Mexicans caused the trouble between the two races. Some towns in this section permit camping only in trailers. The charge for camping in tents is about fifty cents per week, including water, which in some cases must be carried four city blocks. Privies are tin, very bad condition. Garbage is collected only once a week, with large dumps of decaying fruits and vegetables scattered among the camps. Some of the white migrants in this camp were very suspicious of governmental activity, due to the use by south Texas newspapers of the term 'concentration camps' referring to Farm Security Administration camps." Medium format nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the FSA. View full size.

June 1942. "Bean fields, Seabrook Farm at Bridgeton, New Jersey." 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by John Collier. View full size.

August 1937. "Indian girl, daughter of blueberry picker, near Little Fork, Minnesota." View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the FSA.

July 1938. Sorting tobacco on the porch near Near Douglas, Georgia. The program to eliminate the risk and uncertainty of a one-crop system meets the approval of this sharecropper: "You don't have to worriate so much and you've got time to raise somp'n to eat." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.

November 1939. Butler County, Missouri. "Washing clothes at camp for evicted sharecroppers." View full size. Medium format negative by Arthur Rothstein.

July 1943. "Wheat, Pennsylvania." View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration.

1940. Delta County, Colorado. "Hay stack and automobiles of peach pickers." View full size. 35mm Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee for the FSA.

August 1936. "Migrant cotton pickers at lunchtime. Near Robstown, Texas." Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.

December 1936. "Wife of owner-operator and wife of hired hand cleaning chickens in cellar preparatory to canning them. Chickens at this time of year are bringing six cents per pound. These are for roasting. Harry Madsen farm, near Dickens, Iowa. 360 acres, owner operated." Medium format nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

November 1936. "Cotton picker. Southern San Joaquin Valley, California." Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the FSA. View full size.

December 1936. "Marcus Miller and family in shack that he built himself. Spencer, Iowa. This is half the house. Miller is a hired hand who has managed to save enough to make a part payment on seven and a half acres of land. However, he is most anxious to get steady work or to operate a farm." View full size. Medium format nitrate negative by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.

August 1939. "Western Washington, Grays Harbor County, north of Elma. Hand irrigation on small rented subsistence farm. Family have been on place for one year." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange.

July 1940. Children of migrant agricultural workers in Berrien County, Michigan. View full size. 35mm nitrate negative by John Vachon for the FSA.