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'Bound for Glory': New Deal America in Color

In the last years of the Depression, government photographers roamed the country to capture images of America: at play, at work, and struggling to survive. It was a New Deal project, the Farm Security Administration's -- and later the Office of War Information's -- attempt to document life in the United States.

The black-and-white images that emerged became emblems of the time. Dorothea Lange's photo of a migrant mother, for one: grimy and tattered, her face creased with work and worry.

What has been less known is that some of the photographers were also trying out a new technology: Kodachrome, the color film that had just come onto the market.

Now, some of those forgotten full-color images have been collected in a book, Bound for Glory: America in Color 1939-43. The large-format volume is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the publisher Harry N. Abrams.

In an introduction to the collection, author Paul Hendrickson writes that he's fallen "head over heels" with the color pictures taken in the years before the nation was plunged into World War II.

NPR's Melissa Block spoke with Hendrickson about the book and the revelation of seeing Depression-era images in color.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

As special correspondent and guest host of NPR's news programs, Melissa Block brings her signature combination of warmth and incisive reporting. Her work over the decades has earned her journalism's highest honors, and has made her one of NPR's most familiar and beloved voices.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.