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Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs. Florida Folklife Archive
Title, Dates:
Microfilm of Farm Security Administration photographs, 1936-1942.
Amount:
6.00 microfilm reels 35 mm
Medium Included:
Organization/Arrangement:
Numerical by image group number. Each group of images documents a particular activity and/or geographic location.
Restrictions:
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
Legislation in 1979 (79-322, SB 1208) transferred the Florida Folk Arts component of the Stephen Foster Memorial to the Florida Department of State. Operating as the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs from ca. 1985 until 1995, the Bureau coordinated the annual Florida Folk Festival and directed such programs as Folk Arts Apprenticeships, Folk Arts in Education, Folk Heritage awards, annual research surveys and numerous other projects and programs. From 1995 through June 30, 2021, the renamed and reorganized Florida Folklife Program continued the majority of these operations from within the Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Historic Preservation in Tallahassee. During the 1995 reorganization, the State Archives of Florida acquired the Florida Folklife Collection from the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs’ previously maintained Florida Folklife Archives. Legislation in 2021 (2021-71, L. O. F., HB 909) transferred the Florida Folklife Program and its operations from the Division of Historical Resources to the newly renamed Division of Arts and Culture, previously the Division of Cultural Resources, effective July 1, 2021. The program is charged to "identify, research, interpret, and present Florida folk arts, artists, performers, folklore, traditions, customs, and cultural heritage and make folk cultural resources and folklife projects available throughout the state."
From 1935 to 1942, photographers for the Farm Security Administration (FSA), including such gifted photographers as Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, and others, shot over 270,000 photographs documenting rural conditions, life in urban communities, and the war effort on the home front. In 1942, the photographic unit of the FSA was transferred to the Publications Bureau of the Office of War Information (OWI). On January 1, 1944, the entire OWI photographic archive, including the FSA photo collection, was transferred to the Library of Congress, where it remains today.
Summary:
This series consists of microfilm of selected U.S. Farm Security Administration photographs, including images documenting conditions in farming, rural, and small town communities in Florida. There is no indication of how or why this microfilm came to be filed with the records of the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, although it may have been used by Bureau staff for general reference purposes. The Florida photographs included on the film include images of the Escambia Farms (June 1942); Welaka wildlife and forest conservation project; Withlacoochee River agricultural demonstration project near Brooksville (June 1936); Careyville, an abandoned lumber town (July 1937); Withlacoochee land use project (February 1937); Polk and Hernando County citrus production (February 1937); Winterhaven grapefruit production (January 1937); Fort Pierce fruit packing (January 1937); and other rural and industrial places and activities throughout Florida.
Finding Aids:
Microfilm listing available.
Additional Physical Form:
Prints of some of the Florida images are available from the Florida Photographic Collection, Florida State Archives.
Reproduction Note:
Microfilm.
Location of Originals/Duplicates:
Original photographs are in the Farm Security Administration Photographs Collection, Prints and Photographs Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Associated Materials:
Language Notes:
Ownership/Custodial History:
Publication Note:
General Note:
Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Farms Florida Agricultural laborers Florida Agriculture Florida Migrant labor Florida Rural poor Florida Citrus fruit industry Florida Turpentine industry and trade Florida Sponge fisheries
Machine-readable artifacts. aat Photographs. aat
for detailed listing.