FDR’s Alphabet Soup

Records from the Great Depression

Cath Madden Trindle

Photogrammar

It is always great to be able to recommend a website for our genealogical research.  In this case Yale University, in cooperation with the National Endowment for the Humanities has created Photogrammar an online archive of images of the Great Depression.

The website states “Photogrammar is a web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI).”

Link to map

 You start your search with a map that allows you to pick a particular county and explore the images available.  Some, like San Mateo County, have only a few.  Some have none, but others have hundreds  of images available.  Although the images are also available on the Library of Congress website, the organization here makes it much easier to browse for what you want.  Once you click on a picture it is easy to select pictures taken the same day by clicking on the date, or by the same photographer by clicking on the name.  There is also a second map that uses colored dots, with the colors denoting specific photographers. 

 

Selecting the Library of Congress call number will take you directly to the picture on their website, where you might find additional information about access or ordering a copy.  While it is possible to download copies from Photogrammar and from the LOC website, be sure to check the copyright information on LOC before using the photos for anything but your own research.

The Photogrammar Blog supplies some information on how the project was developed and implemented.

Thanks to Genealogy In Time Magazine for bringing this website to my attention.