FSA STANDARD OIL COLLECTION

OWI/FSA COLLECTION
Roy Stryker's documentary unit of FDR's New Deal - the Farm Security Administration - made some of the most important photographs of all time. In 1943, the FSA was transferred to the Office of War Information (OWI). The photographs presented here were salvaged from a waste paper basket by Paul Vanderbilt after a new numbering system was introduced. They remained rolled up in a shoe box for 50 years until we were able to acquire them. Some have notations in Stryker's hand. We rewashed and flattened the photographs and began a 2 year process of combing through photographer's microfilm notes to identify the images.

STANDARD OIL COLLECTION
After the FSA/OWI disbanded, Roy Stryker directed the Standard Oil Company's public relations documentary project. From 1943 to 1950, using the same approach and working with many of the same photographers, Stryker continued to build a body of work exploring the world around us. Stryker's work is profiled in The Humane Propagandist, published by the University of Louisville.

Artists listed here include:

Esther Bubley
John Collier
Marjory Collins
Harold Corsini
Jack Delano
Arnold Eagle
Russell Lee
Ed or Louis Rosskam
Arthur Rothstein
John Vachon