Captured: America in Color from 1939-1943

At least for this moment in time I don't feel so bad sacrificing everything that I am to defend this place...

...Modern times have been sending me many mixed messages on how to feel about what I am, but now I have evidence that this place was built brick by brick by people that were determined to create a world for themselves and I can never be convinced that we somehow became the people that stole things from other people to become what we are.

It can never be made to go away as the result of a philosophical or religious debate.

Wow. I know these are a decade earlier, but these very much remind me of how I remember what it looked like in the fifties.

Well thanks for the pictures. You certainly took me off guard with #13. I have another picture from that same dance but not as close up. I've thought that one of the men in the picture looked very much like my dad. In picture #13 he is closest to the camera.

I was not quite 5 when my dad died so I don't have a lot of memories. I'm checking just to be sure if the apparent age of the person in the photo fits. I believe it will be very close.

I'm sending the link to my brothers so they can look at this close up picture.

ETA: Found my info on family tree. The timeline fits, my parents were married in 1943. WOW

[edit on 8/24/2010 by TXTriker]

America was once such a great and free nation..

Look at what we've become....:shk:

P.S. 65 is my favorite. It reminds me of those old posters.

An S & F for you.

Most excellent thread. Brings the late 30s and early 40s much closer to home. With color photos, one can almost smell the food and feel the grit of confidence in the people of that era.

Pic 28 has got to be my favorite. Construction projects on such magnitude are unimaginable these days.

Pic 51 is another favorite because of the artistic quality captured by the photographer.

I was really amazed by the OPs link so I went and found these photos at flickr.

There are approximately 1600 color photographs from the 30s and 40s from the Library of Congress archives.

While the photos from the OP are within this collection, there are many more stunningly beautiful pictures that are now available for the general public to enjoy via the internet.

Mods: I tried to edit my previous post by adding this to it but I was told that my 4 hours had been exceeded. Checking the time of my previous post and my present time it is less than 4 hours. What's up? I just didn't want it to look like a double post. Oh well.

Nice link.

The color photos make these images so much more personal than if they were in B&W, can relate to them more. #17 was interesting.

Excellent photos!
Even though I wasn't born then,I would gladly swap my "modern" life for how those folks lived back then,sure there was still the startings of a military industrial complex,but it wasn't yet all pervasive as it is now with CCTV and facial recognition on every damn street corner.
Sure there were still gangs,but compared to today,they were like choir boys.
People were left to get on with life without getting contant hassle for not moving their lawn/building a shed in the wrong place etc.
Of course there were problems back then,like the treatment of african americans-but that hasn't yet gone away-even though we are told it has.
Now the government/authorities will treat ANYONE like crap,black white or whatever.
Equal opporunity oppression is todays game sadly.

And we call todays wold "progress."when we can get tasered to death for crossing the road in the wrong place or locked up for making a joke on Twitter...

Has all of our technology really helped the world and its people?
We are always promised it would,but I have my doubts.

How would you rather live?
Like this:


extras.denverpost.com...

Or this?


www.greanvillepost.com...

Absolutely mesmerising photos! Thanks for the excellent link!

As some of the others have said, it makes me feel a little sad, too. In just over 50 years, what have we become!?

The more rural images remind me a lot of my late grandparents' photos taken here in England - very evocative.

reply to post by solarstorm


If you think those old photos are interesting,follow the link below to watch old home movies from the same time frame.

This is the worlds fair 1939.

www.archive.org...

Great photos. A lot of them remind me of my pop and my uncles and seeing pictures of them when they were little ones back in the 30's. The bib overalls, the Karo syrup on the table. He used to tell us stories of growing up on a tobacco farm with twelve brothers and sisters and what life was like. It even reminds me a little of when I was a kid growing up in rural VA. The colors in the photographs are absolutely brilliant.

God bless these people. Admittedly they truly were our greatest generation. Makes me almost ashamed to think of how advantaged we are now compared to what they lived through. It also makes me sad that life will never be that simple or beautiful ever again.

Cheers

Wow these are lovely photographs, so natural and no pretense something which is rare. Simplicity at its best.