THIS collection of  photos taken by photographers for the Farm Security Administration in the thirties and forties recently appeared at the Denver Post site and it includes many great images. Among other things, it highlights the change in basic dress. Children from relatively poor families look classy in comparison to their affluent counterparts of today.  The photo above is of a family attending the state fair in Rutland, Vermont in 1941.

                                             — Comments —

Youngfogey writes:

The photos you linked are certainly beautiful. What I found most striking was the photographs of blacks. Look at the photo of the black man and women chopping cotton a few photos into the exhibit. Look at how dignified and beautiful they are. Look at them doing hard but important and honorable work.

Then compare them to the street-boogeying man-boy from the other day. Liberalism has much to answer for and not least among its many crimes is what it has done to black people to take them from the seriousness we see in these photos to the horrors we see around us today in black culture.

Laura writes:

This photo of a Fourth of July picnic in South Carolina is a snapshot of black life in the days of evil white racism.

Kilroy M. writes:

This may sound like an amazingly trivial or silly comment to make in reply to the photos – but dang cars in those days looked great! 

But there’s something more profound I think in the observation: it seems like the decline of modern architecture, industrial design and with it the form of vehicles is somehow representative of our culture’s departure from celebrating the beautiful, to worshipping the merely useful. This is why I can never get enough of “visiting Elgin Park.” 

I think Scruton made a similar observation once on a BBC documentary on “beauty” itself. This reflects the decline of the spiritual in our society too. I think anything designed after the 60s was merely useful, but not worth preserving for its own sake: I recently bought a Bakelite radio from 1914 to sit on the mantel in our living room. It cost me over $2000 but I don’t regret it. My mates think I’m a nut. But I just like the aged, rustic, historical look of the thing. I enjoy it on a level that I can’t identify with the iPod. The iPod doesn’t resonant the same spirit. It’s dead. My non-functional artifact from another era has so much more life in it. 

On another note, the men in these photos… they really do make us look like a bunch of herbs today. Sure, they weren’t as sophisticated as us, but it’s no wonder they won WW II in five years, while we are “bogged down” in Iraq, Afghanistan etc. Proves that you can have the best technology, but it won’t count for much if you don’t have that special something that all confident, vibrant civilizations have. 

We’re losing that special something, and evidence is all around us. Looking at those photos is a stark reminder. Thank you for posting the link – it was good to look into a time that was rich and full of meaning.

Laura writes:

You’re welcome.

What makes me sad is to see children from a single family in small crowds, with that look in their eyes – both bored and patient – of children who are not spoiled or constantly entertained and distracted. I love the shot of the children sleeping on a bed during a square dance.

Youngfogey writes:

It’s interesting you should post those photos today. Just this morning I was thinking about the progress of liberalism over the course of my lifetime and the concomitant cultural degradation I have seen.

I was remembering 25 years ago when I was a teenager and Tipper Gore and some others formed the Parents’ Music Resource Council and went to Congress to ask them to do something about the awful lyrics in rock music. How naive and simplistic all that seems now. You can be pretty certain that a society is dead when people like me look back at the way every conceivable barbarity was celebrated in music two and half decades ago and see those as the good ole days.

Drina writes:

Your latest post brings to mind a question that I’ve wanted to ask for some time. Lately, mostly due to much encouragement (but not pressure) from my husband, I’ve begun to wear skirts the majority of the time. I used to always wear jeans or capris, except for Sunday Mass and other dressy occasions. While I do like wearing skirts and find them more feminine, it is so comfortable to wear jeans or capris, and I’m rather partial to them. I also fear that I’ll be labeled “one of those people who only wear skirts.” Are you familiar with them? Often, they come across as ultra-modest and sanctimonious, or are at least labled that way, whether that is fair or not.

Can a woman be just as feminine in pants, or is something lost? I do see also, as your post shows, that our culture has become too casual and rather shabby. I like the idea of dressing a little nicer than jeans-and-a-t-shirt for day-to-day activities. But skirts all the time? Skirts 90 percent of the time? Does it matter, do you think?

Laura writes:

I think women look better in dresses and skirts but it is hard to get out of the habit of wearing pants and it’s hard to find durable, casual dresses if you don’t sew. Pants worn with a long, loose top – almost as long as a very short dress – is an attractive compromise and is especially comfortable when doing housework. I say do all three or gradually make the transition to dresses, skirts and the pants/long top combination. I wear pants often. It’s a habit that dies hard.

Tracie C. writes:

A woman’s husband encourages her to wear skirts, and she’s worried that she’ll be labeled as “one of those people who only wear skirts.” 

I can’t think of anything more indicative of the problems in our society today than a woman wondering if wearing skirts or dresses all of the time will cause her to become some sort of oddity in the eyes of others. 

Samson writes:

To me, it’s the pictures of young women that are most heartbreaking. They look proper and, well, to put it bluntly: non-whorish. It’s almost painful to imagine the same young ladies transported to today – how would these same people be dressing and making themselves up if they were born 70 years later?

Laura writes:

Even the women in the “girlie show” look nothing like today’s breast-baring Amazons.

Michael S. writes:

I love color photographs from that era; I wish more of the extant photos of that era were in color. It seems so much more real in color.

Andy K. writes:

Have you ever seen the website called Shorpy‘s? It has a great archive of both older color and B&W photos from the 19th & 20th century.

You have to hunt around to find the old color ones, but it’s worth it.

Samson writes:

Michael S. says that he adores the old colour photos because “they look so much more real.” I enjoy them too, for the same reason. Can you imagine viewing a colour photo of, say, an Ancient Roman or a… or well, anything prior to the 20th century?! Anyway, readers who like military history might also be interested in the colour photos found at the following link. Fascinating stuff. Go here, then click 250 color pictures of WW I.

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