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Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Big E - September 1936 - photos from Yale collection

Yale/Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division

Our last post included photos from this year's Big E, the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.  Today's photos are from the 1936 fair.  Both are taken by photographer Carl Mydan as part of the the federal government's Farm Security Administration.  They are part of a collection recently published on the Internet by Yale University.  

The top photo shows spectators at the outdoor horse-pulling contest.  The bottom photo shows cattle judges inside the coliseum. 

Yale/Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division

The collection provides a wealth of interesting photos from all over the country taken from 1935 to 1944. I hope to include more related to New England scenes in future posts.  

It cannot be too lightly praised or appreciated, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's program of the federal government hiring writers, artists, and photographers to chronicle America as it was in those challenging days.  They have all left us a precious and meaningful legacy.

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