Poverty In Brighter Focus
Every generation goes through its own tough times. Still, there's not much today that can compare with the hardships Americans were living through seven decades ago.
CBS News correspondent Maurice DuBois reports on a different view of a difficult era.
The sadness and fear that hung over America during the Great Depression have been well documented in countless black and white images.
So the pictures on exhibit in the nation's capitol are likely to be a revelation – color shots, taken as early as 1939, for a government PR campaign.
The government sent photographers to some of the poorest places in America to document the nation's tough times and drum up support for relief efforts. And they had a brand-new product in their camera bag – kodachrome film.
"They were pretty amazed. They were really pleased to see what could be done," says curator of photography Beverly Brannan.
Color film was so new, the photographers didn't know exactly how to use it.
"They were discussing among themselves, 'Should we just go for colorful things? Should we go for subtle things? How is this film best going to show what we're looking at?'" Brannan says.
They often shot a subject twice, once in black and white, as a failsafe, and then in color. The pictures offer a new glimpse of the past, from a dusty landscape.
"Now here you can see their dirt's not like our dirt," says Brannan of one photograph.
There's a photograph of a quartet of girls at a state fair.
"This is probably an experiment the photographer was doing with which colors would come through best with this new kind of film," Brannan says.
There's also a picture of a group of sharecroppers, frozen in time.
"You suddenly see they're wearing brightly printed clothes, their sun bonnets are bright!" Brannan says.
They are all part of a Library of Congress exhibit called "Bound for Glory: America in Color."
The pictures are bringing back memories for some.
"We can identify with a lot of it, but you realize, we were shaped by this time in history," says Mary Niedringhaus of South Dakota.
The photographs are changing impressions for others.
"I was surprised to see the color and how beautiful it is, it's just gorgeous," says Betsy Kenney of Maryland. "I thought everything was done in black and white back then."
"Middle-aged people are saying, 'My mother always talked about these things, but I never could see them as clearly as I do now,'" says Brannan.
The exhibit closes at the Library of Congress Saturday. It then goes on a multi-city tour, starting next year in Fort Worth, Texas. There's also a book of the photos available nationwide.