Photos of America - 1935-1945



depression-Captain Riberia waits for his wife to prepare supper. 1942Eighty years ago, 1935, America was still in the Great Depression era. Ten years later, 1945, the country was just coming out the second World War. Such tragedies for many of your ancestors to suffer through.

Yale University along with the Library of Congress have put together over 170,000 photos and made them digital producing the site Photogrammar from nearly every location across America from the years 1935 to 1945. Many of these photos of portrait of individuals, people in their everyday lives at their home, in a town or a farm. Those images with people, many have the full names for those people and the date and location where it was taken. Imagine locating an unknown photo of a relative in this collection. Even if you just find photos of a hometown where your ancestor’s lived would be great.

Depression-Emittsville 1943There are two where to search. One is to use the map search. Here is a big map outlining individual counties in the states. Go to the location of a specific county, click on it and the name and number of photos for that county will appear. If you didn’t hit the right county, just move the cursor over to a neighboring county to see its name. Click then on the number of photos and all of them will appear as a thumbnail size with a short description. Click on the smaller image to enlarge it and there will also be additional details.

Another method is to use the general search page. Place a keyword such as a surname, a hometown, or anything special or unusual. For example, there is only on Lake Okeechobee in the country, it is located in Florida with several towns and counties surrounding this massive lake.

depression-New Mexico stationYou can right click on an enlarged photo to save it to your computer. If can be fascinating searching for the various locations your had ancestors live between 1935 and 1945, well worth the hunt.

Photos: Captain Riberia waits for his wife to prepare supper. Born in Brazil, brought up in Portugal, he has been a fisherman for twenty-three years. He came to the United States in 1927 – living in 1942 in Essex Co., Mass; Scene of Emmitsburg, MD in 1943; A filling station — The boys are pulling up water in buckets for storage. The station boasts running water. located in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico in 1940.

Related FamilyTree.com genealogical blogs:

Photos of Ohio

Library of Congress

 

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