Born 1910 in New Jersey, American photographer Marion Post worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty and deprivation.
Post’s photographs for the FSA often explore the political aspects of poverty and deprivation. They also often find humor in the situations she encountered.
In 1978, Post mounted her first solo exhibition in California, and by the 1980s, the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art began to collect her photographs. The first monograph on Marion Post’s work was published in 1983.
Post was an advocate for women’s rights; in 1986, she said: “Women have come a long way, but not far enough. . . . Speak with your images from your heart and soul” (Women in Photography Conference, Syracuse, N.Y.).
Marion Post’s work is archived at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. She died in 1990 at the age of 80.
These fascinating photos are part of her work that Marion Post captured everyday life of the U.S from 1939 to 1941, just after the Great Depression.
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| Cooperative gas station at Greenbelt, Maryland, 1938 |
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| A FSA (Farm Security Administration) borrower building a new gate for his yard, Prairie Farms, Montgomery, Alabama, 1939 |
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| A rainy evening in New York City looking west toward Hudson River from University Place, 1939 |
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| Tourist court near Plant City, Florida, 1939 |
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| Spectators at the Duke University-North Carolina football game, Durham, North Carolina, 1939 |
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| Children on the steps of Mrs. Brown's home. FSA (Farm Security Administration) borrower on Prairie Farms, Montgomery, Alabama, 1939 |
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| Students during change of classes, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1939 |
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| Public health doctor giving a tenant family medicine for malaria, near Columbia, South Carolina, 1939 |
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| Dade City tourist camp, Florida, 1939 |
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| Cotton snakes, waste cotton picked from floors of sampling and classing rooms in brokers' offices on Cotton Row, Front Street, Memphis, Tennessee, 1939 |
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| Domestic servants waiting for a streetcar on their way to work early in the morning, Mitchell Street, Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 |
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| Impoverished farmers sleeping in a white camp room in a warehouse. They often must remain several days before their tobacco is sold. Durham, North Carolina, 1939 |
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| General town meeting place the park, Lakeland, Florida, 1939 |
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| Home of one of two families who travel and work together all through the South, repairing stalls, stoves, tools, houses, and any other odd jobs. Tourist camp near Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 |
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| Horse races, Hialeah Park, Miami, Florida, 1939 |
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| In an old hotel building in Dover, Georgia, 1939 |
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| June in January, Miami Beach, Florida, 1939 |
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| Sidewalk traffic on main street on the day of tobacco auctions in Mebane, North Carolina, 1939 |
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| A rainy evening in New York City, looking north from University Place, 1939 |
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| Farmers playing cards on a winter morning, Woodstock, Vermont, 1939 |
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| Primary class in new school, Prairie Farms, Montgomery, Alabama, 1939 |
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| Beach bathers at Miami Beach, Florida, 1939 |
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| Students on steps of building between classes, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Orange County, 1939 |
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| Southern U.S., Mississippi, 1939 |
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| The beach front at Miami Beach, Florida, 1939 |
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| Street in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1939 |
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| The horse races at Hialeah Park, Miami, Florida, 1939 |
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| The ski town of Woodstock, Vermont is generally very crowded with skiers on weekends, 1939 |
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| The ski town of Woodstock, Vermont is generally very crowded with skiers on weekends, 1939 |
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| Copper mining and sulfuric acid plant, Copperhill, Tennessee, 1939 |
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| Dade City tourist camp, Florida, 1939 |
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| Watching a baseball game, Atlanta, Georgia, 1939 |
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| Lunchroom near Belle Glade, Florida, 1939 |
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| A country store in Natchez, Mississippi, 1940 |
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| A rural scene in Louisiana, 1940 |
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| A Southern landscape, 1940 |
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| A black tenant's home beside the Mississippi River levee, near Lake Providence, Louisiana, 1940 |
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| A cross roads store, bar, juke joint, and gas station in the cotton plantation area, Melrose, Louisiana, 1940 |
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| Snow drifts and a driveway along the main highway near Rockville, Maryland, 1940 |
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| View of the Colonial Cottage Court for tourists outside of Louisville, Kentucky, 1940 |
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| Townspeople discussing the severe winter on the street corner in center of town in Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Residential section of North Conway, New Hampshire, 1940 |
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| Outside Natchez, Mississippi, 1940 |
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| Farmers near Woodstock, Vermont bring their cans of milk to the crossroads early every morning where it is picked up by the coop farmers' truck and is taken to the city, 1940 |
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| Harvesting oats in southeastern Georgia, 1940 |
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| Horse and his shelter on a farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1940 |
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| Hired man on a farm near Woodstock, Vermont, usually empties the radiator in his car every evening and refills it again with water in the morning to save the cost of antifreeze, 1940 |
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| Horse and sled of a garbage and rubbish collector, Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Mailman making deliveries after a heavy snowfall, Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Mailman making deliveries after a heavy snowfall, Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Mailman making deliveries after a heavy snowfall, Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Street scene in Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1940 |
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| Farmer's Co-op truck full of milk cans driving into town, 1940 |
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| Storefront with advertising signs in Natchez, Mississippi, 1940 |
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| Snowy night in the Center of town in Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Mailboxes for farms on the highway near Frederick, Maryland, 1940 |
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| Townspeople of Woodstock, Vermont, discussing the severe winter on the street corner in center of town, 1940 |
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| Townspeople of Woodstock, Vermont, discussing the severe winter on the street corner in center of town, 1940 |
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| Two men on a street in Woodstock, Vermont, 1940 |
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| Port Gibson, Mississippi, 1940 |
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| Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1941 |
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| Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana. Men playing checkers, 1941 |
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| Winter tourist reading a magazine beside his trailer home, Sarasota trailer park, Sarasota, Florida, 1941 |
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| The Sawatch mountains near Buena Vista, Colorado, 1941 |