Wednesday, December 7, 2022 – A PHOTOGRAPHER FOR THE FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION, RECORDING THE AMERICAN SCENE
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2022
MARION POST WOLCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHER
THE 854th EDITION
WIKIPEDIA
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
Marion Post Wolcott (June 7, 1910 – November 24, 1990) was an American photographer who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty, the Jim Crow South, and deprivation.
American photographer Marion Post Wolcott (1910-1990).
| Early lifeMarion Post was born in Montclair, New Jersey on June 7, 1910, to Marion (née Hoyt; known as “Nan”) and Walter Post, a physician.[1][2] She grew up in the family home in Bloomfield, the younger of two daughters in the Post family.[3] Her parents divorced when she was thirteen and she was sent to boarding school, spending time at home with her mother in Greenwich Village when not at school.[4] Here she met many artists and musicians and became interested in dance. She studied at The New School.Post trained as a teacher, and went to work in a small town in Massachusetts. Here she saw the reality of the Depression and the problems of the poor. When the school closed she went to Europe to study with her sister Helen. Helen was studying with Trude Fleischmann, a Viennese photographer. Marion Post showed Fleischmann some of her photographs and was told to stick to photography. |
 CareerWhile in Vienna she saw some of the Nazi attacks on the Jewish population and was horrified. Soon she and her sister had to return to America for safety. She went back to teaching but also continued her photography and became involved in the anti-fascist movement. At the New York Photo League she met Ralph Steiner and Paul Strand who encouraged her. When she found that the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin kept sending her to do “ladies’ stories”, Ralph Steiner took her portfolio to show Roy Stryker, head of the Farm Security Administration, and Paul Strand wrote a letter of recommendation. Stryker was impressed by her work and hired her immediately.Post’s photographs for the FSA often explore the political aspects of poverty and deprivation. They also often find humour in the situations she encountered.In 1941 she met Leon Oliver Wolcott, deputy director of war relations for the U. S. Department of Agriculture under Franklin Roosevelt. They married, and Marion Post Wolcott continued her assignments for the FSA, but resigned shortly thereafter in February 1942. Wolcott found it difficult to fit in her photography around raising a family and a great deal of traveling and living overseas.[5]In the 1970s, a renewed interest in Post Wolcott’s images among scholars rekindled her own interest in photography. In 1978, Wolcott mounted her first solo exhibition in California, and by the 1980s the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art began to collect her photographs. The first monograph on Marion Post Wolcott’s work was published in 1983.[6] Wolcott was an advocate for women’s rights; in 1986, Wolcott said: “Women have come a long way, but not far enough. . . . Speak with your images from your heart and soul” (Women in Photography Conference, Syracuse, N.Y.).[5]Post Wolcott’s work is archived at the Library of Congress and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.[7] |
| DeathPost Wolcott died of lung cancer in Santa Barbara, California, on November 24, 1990.[1] |
 Hog killing Halifax County Marion Post Wolcott 1939.jpeg“Hog killing on Milton Puryeur place; He is a Negro owner of five acres of land; Rural Route No. 1, Box 59, Dennison, Halifax County, Virginia; This is six miles south [on Highway No. 501] of South Boston; He used to grow tobacco and cotton but now just a subsistence living; These hogs belong to a neighbor landowner; He burns old shoes and pieces of leather near the heads of the slaughtered hogs while they are hanging to keep the flies away.” Photograph by Marion Post Wolcott from the U.S. Farm Security Administration, courtesy of the New York Public Library Digital Collection |
 Memphis Cotton Exchange.JPGTITLE: Interior of Memphis cotton exchange just before closing. Tennessee |
 Dymaxion House – LOC 8c14948v.jpgHistoric photograph of the Diamaxion (Dymaxion) house, metal, adapted corn bin, built by Butler Brothers, Kansas City. Designed and promoted by R. Buckminister Fuller. Kansas City, Missouri, USA, from the Library of Congress. Wolcott, Marion Post, 1910-1990, photographer; created 1941 May for the U.S. Farm Security Administration / Office of War Information. This photograph is in the public domain because it was created by the United States Government. |
 FSA Dancing JukeJoint.jpgSaturday night juke joint outside of Clarksdale, Mississippi Delta. |
 No beer sold to indians.jpgBirney, Montana. August 1941.”People who came to Saturday night dance around the bar.”Bar has a sign that reads “POSITIVELY NO BEER SOLD TO INDIANS” |
 Tony Bacinos NOLA 1941 MPWolcott.jpg French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1941. “Old buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana”Shows Bourbon Street; Tony Bacino’s bar at right was at downtown river corner with Toulouse Street. |
WEDNESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
TUESDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
The Harriet Tubman Memorial, also known as Swing Low,[1] located in Manhattan in New York City, honors the life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman.[2] The intersection at which it stands was previously a barren traffic island, and is now known as “Harriet Tubman Triangle”.[1][3] As part of its redevelopment, the traffic island was landscaped with plants native to New York and to Tubman’s home state of Maryland, representing the land which she and her Underground Railroad passengers travelled across.[3]
The statue depicts Tubman striding forward despite roots pulling on the back of her skirt; these represent the roots of slavery. Her skirt is decorated with images representing the former slaves who Tubman assisted to escape. The base of the statue features illustrations representing moments from Tubman’s life, alternated with traditional quilting symbols.[1]
In 2004, the traffic island and the statue received a Public Design Commission Award for Excellence in Design.
GLORIA HERMAN, ALEXIS VILLAFANE, HARA REISER & ARON EISENPREISS GOT IT RIGHT.
Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
Sources
WIKIPEDIA
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
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