Search results

Listed under:  History  >  World history  >  American history
Image

'Migrant mother', 1936

This is one of the most famous photographs of the Great Depression in the USA. It shows Florence Owens Thompson aged 32 huddled together with three of her seven children (the baby is obscured). The family as a whole are described in the Library of Congress catalogue as 'migrant' (ie itinerant) pea pickers in California ...

Image

'Old Negro (former slave) with horn with which slaves were called', 1939

This is a black-and-white photograph showing an old African American man sitting in a doorway and holding a horn once used to summon slaves to work at sunrise. The photograph was taken near Marshall in Texas, USA, by photographer Russell Lee.

Image

'Landing negroes at Jamestown from Dutch man-of-war, 1619'

This is a black-and-white illustration showing how the well-known American artist Howard Pyle (1853-1911) imagined the landing of the first Africans at Jamestown in the colony of Virginia nearly 300 years after the historical event. Pyle depicts 20 emaciated captives kneeling or sitting on the ground, guarded by men with ...

Image

Second atomic bombing of Japan at Nagasaki, 1945

This is a black-and-white photograph showing the mushroom cloud rising from the explosion of an atomic bomb with an estimated force of 20,000 tonnes of TNT, 560 m above Nagasaki, Japan, on 9 August 1945. Part of the wing of the camera plane that accompanied the bomb-carrying plane can be seen at bottom right. The image ...

Image

First African American tenants moving into the Sojourner Truth housing project, 1942

This is a black-and-white photograph showing an African American family attempting to move into the Sojourner Truth housing project in Detroit, Michigan, USA. The photograph was taken in February 1942 by Arthur Siegel. Part of its caption reads 'Riot at the Sojourner Truth homes, a new U.S. federal housing project, caused ...

Image

Police arresting an African American during the Sojourner Truth housing riot, 1942

This is a black-and-white photograph showing an African American being arrested by two policemen in Detroit, Michigan. One mounted policeman looks on and another stands guard. The photograph was taken in February 1942, almost certainly on 28 February, by Arthur Siegel. Part of the photograph's caption reads: 'Riot at the ...

Image

'Girl at Gees Bend', 1937

This is a black-and-white photograph of Artelia Bendolph, a member of an African American tenant farming family at Gee's Bend in Alabama, USA. The photograph was taken by Arthur Rothstein. Bendolph is portrayed looking out through an unglazed window. The open window shutter lined with sheets of newspaper is to the left ...

Image

African American teacher and pupils at a segregated rural school in Oklahoma, 1940

This is a black-and-white photograph showing an African American female teacher with two students in a school in Creek County in the US state of Oklahoma. The photograph was taken by Russell Lee in February 1940. Part of the caption he wrote for the image reads, 'This year, despite the fact the white school received free ...