Jack Delano took this picture of children living in the tenement district of Brockton, Massachusetts in December of 1940. The Library of Congress tells us the picture includes "twelve children, a mom and 'Whitey' the dog."
Massachusetts was just a stop for Delano as he traveled to various places in the American Northeast:
From August 1940 to February 1941, Jack Delano and his new bride, Irene, traveled throughout the Northeast photographing shipyards, steel mills, aircraft factories, and a submarine base - in addition to the more typical dairy farms, tobacco fields, and potato farmers. As the nation prepared for war, Delano was told to illustrate America's strengths by documenting New England's agricultural resources and its industrial installations.
A few days earlier, Delano had written that he was photographing poultry and dairy farmers in Connecticut, trying to illustrate what he called "the part-time farmer problem." The "problem" was that people who both farmed and worked in light industry were not eligible for assistance from rural relief programs. According to an FSA [Farm Security Administration] supplemental file, "the social effects of extending assistance to this 'part-time' farmer group is of utmost importance," since these farmers were "sound citizens . . . not susceptible to social agitators." If Delano could put a human face on people who moved back and forth between industry and farming, it might bring governmental attention to their economic plight. (Picturing Faith: Photography and the Great Depression, by Colleen McDannell, pages 167-68.)
Click on the image for a better view. Part of the "Bound for Glory" exhibition from the Library of Congress.
Credits
Image 46 (of 70) included in the Exhibition, "Bound for Glory,"
online courtesy Library of Congress. The LOC describes this
reproduction, from a color slide, as follows:
Jack Delano. Children in the tenement district. Brockton, Massachusetts, December 1940. Reproduction from color slide. LC-USF351-5. LC-DIG-fsac-1a33853. FSA/OWI Collection. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.
Quoted passages from Picturing Faith: Photography and the Great Depression, by Colleen McDannell.
