Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943 (Library of Congress Exhibition)

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/boundforglory/glory-home.html

Bound for Glory: America in Color is the first major exhibition of the little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Comprised of seventy digital prints made from color transparencies taken between 1939 and 1943, this exhibition reveals a surprisingly vibrant world that has typically been viewed only through black-and-white images.

Approximately one dozen photographers were employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA), and its successor agency, the Office of War Information (OWI), from 1935 through 1944. The original goal of the government project was to record through documentary photographs the ravages of the Depression on America's rural population and were intended to spur Congress and the American public to support government relief efforts. Over the years, with an improved economy, increased industrialization, and the onset of World War II, the photographs increasingly focused on an America that was productive, beautiful, and determined. The photographs originally intended to have a narrow focus developed into a noteworthy broader national record.

The curators selected 70 photos out of 1,602 color photos originally taken. The images selected seem to well exemplify each year the collection spans, as well as images which seem to best represent the themes of the collection: the Great Depression, rural American life, wartime industrialization, etc.

Thumbnails range from 20x150-130 pixels, with the full-sized image being relatively large at 640x430-500 pixels. I’d imagine the full-sized images are approximately the same as the original color slides.

Metadata for the thumbnails is very extensive, including photographer (if known), title, place of origin, year (and sometimes month), medium, Library of Congress call numbers for both the original and digital images, and mentions it’s part of the FSA/OWI Collection. The entire collection is noted as such:

Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939–43. New York: H.N. Abrams in association with the Library of Congress, 2004.

The site also lists a link to the entire photography collection http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html.

I believe the intended audience is certainly American, perhaps students of American history, people interested in WWII or the Great Depression, or people who lived during these times.