Time to go back to school! The relaxing days of summer are giving way to busy schooldays for millions of children – and teachers – across the country, with many already at their desks and ready to tackle a new school year.
Photographers for the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information traveled all over the country in the late 1930s and early 1940s, documenting American life with their cameras. In the course of this work, they snapped photos of schools and classrooms in rural communities and in cities, including one-room wooden schoolhouses and stately brick buildings. Students walking to school, hopping on the bus, enjoying recess and studying hard are all part of the stories about schooltime told by the photographs of this era. Take a look at “back to school” in the selection of photos below:
Grade school, San Augustine, Texas. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939 April. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a25899Dead Ox Flat. Children get into school bus on a fall morning. Malheur County, Oregon. Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1939 Oct. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b35057Washington, D.C. Class in the Banneker Junior High School. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1942 Mar. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d45065Jacknife School, Gem County, Idaho. Eleven pupils, two of them children of families belonging to Ola self-help sawmill co-op. Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1939 Oct. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b35313Schoolchildren on circular swing, San Augustine, Texas. Photo by Russell Lee, 1938 Sept.-Oct. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a25893School. Red House, West Virginia. Photo by Elmer Johnson, between 1935 and 1942. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b26981Charlotte Court House, Virginia. Central High School. Social science class. Photo by Philip Bonn, 1943 June. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d31371Painting class in school, Westmoreland Homesteads, Pennsylvania. Photo by Ben Shahn, 1937. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a17523Tip Estes’ children boarding a school bus near Fowler, Indiana. Photo by Russell Lee, 1937 Apr. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8b30308New York, New York. Class in Public School Eight on King Street, discussing a book entitled “We love America,” brought to school by one of the pupils. Photo by Marjory Collins, 1943 Jan. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d24386Farm children walking to one-room schoolhouse with lunch pails, Nebraska. Photo by John Vachon, 1938 Oct. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8a03638
Learn More:
Rural school children, San Augustine County, Texas. Photo by John Vachon, 1943 April. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a35427
Photographs in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI) Collection were classified by subject matter. (Not all photos in the online collection have their classification recorded.) Explore the photos under these subjects:
Revisit earlier Picture This entries which focused on photographs of classrooms, exploring several images in detail and discussing visual literary techniques:
Where are the projects, grade with work comparison levels for poor quality school work comparison
Such as in Death at an early age, by Johnathan Kozol, 1963
Elizabeth Osborn says:
I love these photos. Thanks for another wonderful post.
karenza t wall says:
lovely photos
i never attended a school as small as those in the photographs, but some of the clothing, the furnishings, and the first school bus brought a rush of memories.
and i grew up in india!
humans are more alike than different, something to remember in these difficult times.
Comments (3)
Where are the projects, grade with work comparison levels for poor quality school work comparison
Such as in Death at an early age, by Johnathan Kozol, 1963
I love these photos. Thanks for another wonderful post.
lovely photos
i never attended a school as small as those in the photographs, but some of the clothing, the furnishings, and the first school bus brought a rush of memories.
and i grew up in india!
humans are more alike than different, something to remember in these difficult times.