Life of the United States in the Early 1940s Through Stunning Colorized Photos by Jack Delano

Jack Delano (born Jacob Ovcharov; 1914–1997) was an accomplished photographer who worked for the Works Progress Administration, United Fund, and most notably, the Farm Security Administration (FSA). Additionally, he was a cartoonist, poet, moviemaker, professor, and architect who used Puerto Rican folk material in his compositions.

Delano had completed several photo essays on American industry preparing for war by the time the United States entered WWII. In 1943, he was drafted into the Air Force and served in the South Pacific from 1943 to 1946. During his service in the military, he continued to document his experiences through films and photographs. As a captain, Delano moved to Puerto Rico with his wife, Irene (a second cousin to fellow photographer Ben Shahn), a land they had both fallen in love with.

During the early 1940s, Delano took these stunning photographs documenting life in the United States. Rob van den Berg colorized these photographs.

#1 Tenant farmer and part of his family in field ready for tobacco planting. Nine miles north of Danville, Pittsylvania County, Virginia, 1935

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#2 Children in Midland, Pennsylvania, January 1940

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#3 Family living in the “crackerbox” slum tenement in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, January 1940

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#4 Florida migratory farm worker, near Belcross, North Carolina, July 1940

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#5 Truck drivers shaving at truck service station on U.S. 1 (New York Avenue), Washington, D.C., June 1940

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#6 At the electric furnace in the foundry at the Farrell-Birmingham Company, Ansonia, Connecticut, November 1940

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#7 Children of Warren Franklin, dairy farmer near Guilford, Vermont, August 1941

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#8 Cleaning turpentine cups in boiling water at a still near Pembroke, Georgia, 1941

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#9 French village, a small settlement on Saint Thomas Island, Virgin Islands. Children of a French family living in the French village, a small settlement, December 1941

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#10 French-speaking women and children who live in the little colony known as the French Village, in the outskirts of Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, December 1941

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#11 In the convict camp in Greene County, Georgia, May 1941

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#12 Mr. Eliot H. Miller, dairy farmer at Castleton, Vermont, August 1941

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#13 Mrs. Carrie Ward has lived near Leraysville for seventeen years, New York, August 1941

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#14 Mrs. Leroy Dunn chopping cotton in a field, White Plains (vicinity), Georgia, May 1941

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#15 Mrs. Robert McWharter, wife of a tenant purchase client, Woodville, Greene County, Georgia, June 1941

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#16 Negro tenant farm woman. A widow. She runs the farm with the help of two children, Greene County, Georgia, 1941

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#17 One of the children of Warren Franklin, near Guilford, Vermont, August 1941

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#18 One of the girls in the “girlie” show at the Rutland Fair, Vermont, September 1941

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#19 Tenant farmer’s wife near Penfield, Greene County, Georgia, June 1941

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#20 The family of Clinton J. Stewart, White Plains, Greene County, Georgia, June 1941

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#21 Tony Thompson, born in slavery, Greene County, Georgia, June 1941

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#22 Worker who lives on one of the steep streets in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, December 1941

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#23 Newsboy selling the Chicago Defender, a leading Negro newspaper, Chicago, Illinois, April 1942

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#24 Welder who was employed in the roundhouse at a Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yard, Chicago, Illinois, December 1942

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