Hole in the Clouds


Sitting on the Wall With Osage Oranges

Nov 3, 2012

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a few photographers from the U.S. government's New Deal documentation projects shot a handful of pictures using a newfangled technology: color film. This is one of the surviving prints, probably taken in 1939 by an unknown photographer believed to have been working with the Farm Security Administration.

The girls, who are described in the photo caption as "playing in a park near Union Station in Washington, D.C.,"  are holding osage oranges in their hands. Based on other images in the set, they may have been on the grounds of the United States Capitol building.

children   Washington, D.C.   1930s?   (Image credit: Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information)