Featured Image - Southern Spaces

Miner's sons salvaging coal during May 1939 strike, Kempton, West Virginia

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 04:00:00 +0000

John Vachon, Miner's sons salvaging coal during May 1939 strike, Kempton, West Virginia. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black-and-White Negatives Collection, LC-USF34-032709-D.

Grapefruit Workers in Florida, January 1937

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 05:00:00 +0000

This series of photographs by Arthur Rothstein depicts men and women in canning and packing plants in Winter Haven and Fort Pierce, Florida. While photographs of agricultural work appear throughout the Library of Congress's Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives Collection, I thought that these images of Floridian workers packing and canning grapefruits and oranges were dramatically different than other, more nostalgic images of small farmers in the US South during the 1930s. Arthur Rothstein seems to have taken a particular interest in migrant workers during his time in Winter Haven and Fort Pierce, Florida in 1937.


Arthur Rothstein. Packing fruit in the packinghouse at Fort Pierce, Florida, January 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-002342-M5.


Arthur Rothstein, Packing fruit in association packinghouse at Fort Pierce, Florida. Some migratory labor is employed here, January 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-002343-M3.


Arthur Rothstein, Juicers in the grapefruit canning plant at Winter Haven, Florida. Many of these men are migrants, January 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-002370-M2.


Arthur Rothstein, Sectioners at work canning grapefruit. About half of these girls are migrants. Winter Haven, Florida, January 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33- 002369-M4.


Arthur Rothstein, At work in the grapefruit canning plant at Winter Haven, Florida, January 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-002368-M1.

Day of action, Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C., September 27, 2010

Meredith Doster — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 05:00:00 +0000

As part of the "Appalachia Rising: Voices from the Mountains" conference held in September 2010, protesters participated in a day of action in the nation's capital to increase awareness of mountaintop removal mining (MTR) and its impact on Appalachian communities. Described as both a mobilizing effort and an opportunity for civil disobedience, the protest resulted in over one hundred arrests during a sit-in on Freedom Plaza. While mountaintop removal is often considered an Appalachian problem, this protest and its depiction of the federal Army Corps of Engineers points to the complexity of environmental issues that transcend regional boundaries.

Rena Xavier, Day of action, Freedom Plaza, Washington, D.C., September 27, 2010.

Red J. Store on Carroll Street, ca. 1910–1920

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:00:00 +0000

This week's featured image was inspired by my own search for information about my newly adopted neighborhood of Cabbagetown, a former milltown on Atlanta's east side. With its perilous, narrow streets and shotgun houses—both hallmarks of milltown design—and with the Fulton Mill smokestacks looming mutely in the background, the neighborhood is saturated with remnants of its industrial past. But what did Cabbagetown look and feel like between the late nineteenth century and the late 1970s when the neighborhood's industrial identity was in its heyday?

Georgia Tech's Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills Digital Collection aims to show us a portion of this history. The collection, which is the result of a joint effort between the institute's Library and Information Center's Archives and Records Management, Digital Initiatives, and Systems Departments, provides digital access to archival images, community censuses, correspondence, and other records pertaining to the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills. Additionally, the collection highlights materials on "Labor organizing" and "Labor strikes," offering a wealth of archival print resources related to millworkers' struggles to organize in the early twentieth century.

After finding Cabbagetown using the collection's browse function, I discovered a number of striking images of my neighborhood, including an unattributed photograph from the early twentieth century depicting a store called Red J. on Carroll Street. Although it's difficult to determine the exact location of the shop from the contextual information contained within the image it's safe to say that it was very close to the factory's eastern side.

Red J. Store on Carroll Street, ca. 1910–1920. Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills Digital Collection, Georgia Institute of Technology, vam004-015.

Given the amount and types of resources this digital collection makes available to the public, I suspect I'll be referencing it more frequently as I work to uncover for myself Cabbagetown's rich and complicated past.

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency boat ride on the Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee, 2008

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Amie Vanderford, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency boat ride on the Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee, 2008.

Gravestones in Chester County, South Carolina and Wythe County, Virginia

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000

William Simpson gravestone (1777), Stone Cemetery, Chester County, South Carolina, March 1996.

Rear faces of gravestones carved by Laurence Crone, McGavock Family Cemetery, Fort Chiswell, Wythe County, Virginia, August 1978. From Daniel Patterson, The True Image (read an essay excerpted from the book). Used with permission of the University of North Carolina Press.

Street scene, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 1935

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Ben Shahn, Street scene, New Orleans, Louisiana, October 1935. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black-and-White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-006097-M3.

Threshing crew in the Tygart Valley, West Virginia, August 1936

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 04:00:00 +0000

This series of Carl Mydans photographs depicting wheat farmers in the Tygart Valley of West Virginia struck us as particularly interesting, so we decided to post it as this week's set of featured images. While scouring the Library of Congress's Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negatives Collection, I came across the first image in the series, which seems to traffic in nostalgic visions of an agrarian landscape filled with small farmers. However, the sequence of photographs below actually shows how West Virginia farmers combined old and new technologies of agricultural production during the Great Depression. More of Mydans's photographs from the Tygart Valley can be found on the Library of Congress website.


Carl Mydans, Threshing crew loading bundles, Tygart Valley, West Virginia, August, 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-000720-M3.


Carl Mydans, Threshing, Tygart Valley, West Virginia, August, 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-000723-M2.


Carl Mydans, Untitled, Tygart Valley, West Virginia, August, 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-000722-M5.


Carl Mydans, Threshing, Tygart Valley, West Virginia, August, 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-000723-M5.


Carl Mydans, Threshing crew, Tygart Valley, West Virginia, August, 1936. Library of Congress Prinsts and Photographs Division, FSA/OWI Black & White Negatives Collection, LC-USF33-00723-M3.

Bill's fish market, Sunset Beach, North Carolina, 2012

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Louisiana National Guardmen observe as water from the industrial canal overtops the levees, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 2008

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Chuck Simmins, Louisiana National Guardmen observe as water from the industrial canal overtops the levees, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 2008.

The Louisiana National Guard set up a road block in the Upper Ninth Ward during Hurricane Gustav, September 1, 2008. In this photograph, two Guardsmen located on the Claiborne Avenue Bridge observe as water from the industrial canal overtops the levees and pours onto the city.