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Gallery: Rare Color Photos of Great Depression

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Picking cotton

day laborers picking cotton

(Image credit: Marion Post Wolcott / Library of Congress)

Day laborers picking cotton near Clarksdale, Miss. Delta, in November 1940.

Vermont state fair

Vermont state fair

(Image credit: Jack Delano / Library of Congress)

At the Vermont state fair, Rutland, in September 1941.

Aircraft worker

woman aircraft worker during WW II

(Image credit: David Bransby / Library of Congress)

An aircraft worker checks electrical assemblies at Vega Aircraft Corporation, Burbank, Calif., in June 1942.

Cabbage crop

boy in cabbage field

(Image credit: Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress)

Child of a migratory farm laborer in the field during the harvest of the community center's cabbage crop, FSA labor camp, Tex., in January 1942.

Parachute 101

parachute lessons

(Image credit: Arthur Rothstein, Library of Congress)

Instructor explaining the operation of a parachute to student pilots, Meacham field, Fort Worth, Tex., in January 1942.

And the winner is ...

County fair winner, 1940

(Image credit: Russell Lee, Library of Contress)

Winner at the Delta County Fair, Colo., in October 1940.

Going for a ride

ferris wheel ride

(Image credit: Jack Delano, Library of Congress.)

On the ferris wheel at the Vermont state fair, Rutland, in September 1941.

Juke joint

migrant workers

(Image credit: Marion Post Wolcott / Library of Congress)

Living quarters and "juke joint" for migratory workers, a slack season, in Belle Glade, Fla., in February 1941.

Girlie show

backstage at girlie show

(Image credit: Jack Delano, Library of Congress.)

"Backstage" at the "girlie" show at the Vermont state fair, Rutland, in September 1941.

Starch trucks

starch factory

(Image credit: Jack Delano, Library of Congress.)

Nearly 50 trucks lined up outside of a starch factory, Caribou, Aroostook County, Me. Some had been waiting for twenty-four hours for the potatoes to be graded and weighed, in October 1940.

Louisiana porch

three children in Louisiana during great depression

(Image credit: Marion Post Wolcott / Library of Congress)

Three children sit on the porch of a house on the Bayou Bourbeau plantation, a Farm Security Administration cooperative, in the vicinity of Natchitoches, La., in August 1940.

Jeanna Bryner
Managing editor, Scientific American

Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.