Arthurdale Heritage, Inc.

FSA-OWI Photography Project

Roy Emerson Stryker (1893-1975) was the head of the Resettlement Administration's (RA) photographic project. The RA became known as the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in 1937. The RA photographic project was started in the summer of 1935 and continued until 1943 and during this period FSA photographers documented life in America in all 48 states. In 1942, the Historical section of the FSA, under budgetary constraints, became a photographic division of the Office of War Information (OWI). Stryker resigned in 1943 and the complete collection of photographs (approximately 270,000 negatives and 77,000 prints) were transferred to the Library of Congress in Washington, DC in 1944.

Arthurdale was originally created in 1933 under the Division of Subsistence Homesteads of the Department of the Interior. In 1935 the problems of the rural poor were assigned to the Resettlement Administration under the direction of Rexford Tugwell. Arthurdale was assigned to the RA, later to the FSA.

The FSA photography project was assigned the task of gathering information about the historical, sociological and economic aspects of the government relief programs in the US. Stryker hired about 15 photographers to document all the FSA projects in photos.  FSA photographers of Arthurdale included: Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, Edwin Locke, Elmer Johnson, John Vachon, & Arthur Rothstein.

Arthurdale is one of the best documented projects in the FSA-OWI Collection.

Walker Evans (1903-1975) Evans was originally contracted to photograph Arthurdale for the Department of the Interior prior to becoming a contracted photographer for the FSA. His photos became part of the FSA collection. He was hired by the FSA in October 1935 and photographed for the FSA from then through the summer of 1938. During this time he photographed Arthurdale as well as other FSA projects in Pennsylvania and Alabama.

Ben Shahn (1898-1969) From 1935-1938 Ben Shahn photographed in the rural southern and the mid-west United States for the Historical Section of the Resettlement Administration/Farm Security Administration. Shahn was actually employed by the Special Skills section of the Resettlement Administration to prepare murals and exhibits. One of his murals is located in the Roosevelt School Building in Roosevelt, New Jersey. The project in Roosevelt, New Jersey was originally called the Jersey Homesteads, a sister New Deal homestead cooperative project, for some 200 families of displaced garment workers. The name was changed to Roosevelt in 1944 after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. While creating the mural, Ben Shahn so enjoyed the area and the people in Roosevelt, NJ, he later settled there.

Arthur Rothstein (1915-1985) After graduation from Columbia University, Rothstein was hired by the FSA by Stryker, an ex economics professor from Columbia University.  At Columbia, Rothstein founded the university's photography club. In 1940, Rothstein was hired as a staff photographer by Look magazine and later became its Director of Photography. FSA photographer Arthur Rothstein believed it was their job to document the problems of the Depression so that the government could justify the New Deal legislation that was designed to alleviate them.

John Vachon (1914-   ) John Vachon was originally hired in 1936 by the FSA as an "assistant messenger" and one responsibility was to catalogue the pictures which were being taken. The more photos he catalogued the more his interest in photography grew. He was hired as a photographer in 1938. His contribution to the FSA Arthurdale collection consists of one photo. He later became a professional photographer for Look magazine, under Rothstein, and produced feature stories for almost twenty years.

Elmer "Ted" Johnson () Johnson was a photographer working for the Department of the Interior's Division of Subsistence Homesteads, but the photographs ended up in the FSA collection. He began photographing Arthurdale as early as 1934 depicting the initial site, the early houses, both exterior and interior, as well as photos of daily life. When the small photographic unit of the Division of Subsistence Homesteads was transferred to the FSA, Johnson became one of the first FSA photographers.

Edwin Locke () Locke was employed by the FSA from 1935 to 1937 as Stryker's assistant.  He was not a major photographer but his coverage in film of Arthurdale is the most thorough.

The photographs, in FSA-OWI sequence number order, are presented by photographer, in no particular order. Each photographer's style was different, each trying to document an aspect that he saw.