July 1939. Orange County, North Carolina. "Caroline Atwater, wife of Negro landholder, in the yard of her double one-and-a-half-story log house, telling where she was born and how she came to this place." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.

Circa 1924. "Boy with mechanical toy" by Lewis Wickes Hine, taken after his epic, decade-long assignment for the National Child Labor Committee. View full size.

July 1939. "Congregation gathers after services to talk. Wheeley's [Wheeler's?] Church, Person County, North Carolina." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.

Summer 1938. Uncaptioned. Somewhere in Ohio, possibly Marysville. 35mm negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

October 1935. Resident of Omar, West Virginia, seen here recently. 35mm nitrate negative by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. View full size.

Earl Smith, New York National League (Giants). Date written on this glass-plate negative is June 9, 1923. Although another from this 5181 series of pictures taken at the Polo Grounds has "5/13/20" scratched into the emulsion. View full size. 5x7 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.

January 1943. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains above Penasco, New Mexico, looking north into Colorado. View full size. 4x5 Kodachrome by John Collier.

September 13, 1916. Henderson County, Kentucky. "Colored School at Anthoston. Census 27, enrollment 12, attendance 7. Teacher expects 19 to be enrolled after work is over. 'Tobacco keeps them out and they are short of hands.' Ages of those present: 13 to 5." View full size. Photo by Lewis Wickes Hine.

February 1942 in Weslaco, Texas. "Boy musician" was the caption given by photographer Arthur Rothstein to this portrait of Weldon Drake, shown in yesterday's posts playing with his father and brother at a Farm Security Administration Saturday-night dance. View full size.

December 24, 1943. Washington, D.C. Christmas Eve party given by Local 203 of the United Federal Workers of America, Congress of Industrial Organizations. View full size. Medium-format safety negative by Joseph Horne.

August 1939. Agricultural migrants. "Family who traveled by freight train. Toppenish, Washington. Yakima Valley." View full size. Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration.

July 1939. "Corner of tobacco farmer's front room. Shows enclosed stairway and corner of the new fancy bed. Person County, North Carolina." (Whitfield home.) Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. View full size.

December 1943. Another classic from Esther Bubley and her ever-inquiring camera: "Washington, D.C. In the library at the United Nations service center. Boys are urged to take books back to camp with them." View full size.

December 1943. "In the evening, Hugh Massman and his wife fold diapers. Joey's bureau drawer crib is moved to the side of their bed for the night." The Massmans were a young Navy family whose lives in Washington, D.C., were documented by Office of War Information photographer Esther Bubley. We're fortunate to have heard from their son Bascomb, whose comments have served as informative and entertaining annotations for these pictures. View full size.

August 1939. "Sick migrant child. Washington, Yakima Valley, Toppenish." The daughter of migrant laborers harvesting hops in Washington State. Medium format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the FSA. View full size.