Corn Shocks and Split Rail Fence Near Marion, W. Va.
Artist
Marion Post Wolcott
(American, 1910 - 1990)
CultureAmerican
DateOctober 1940
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 6 11/16 × 9 1/4 in. (17 × 23.5 cm)
Overall: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 1/16 × 20 1/8 in. (40.8 × 51.1 cm)
Overall: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 1/16 × 20 1/8 in. (40.8 × 51.1 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Fund
Object number85.69
On View
Not on viewLabel Textbottom Marion Post Wolcott American, 1910–1990 Corn Shocks and Split Rail Fence Near Marion, W. Va., October 1940 Gelatin silver print (photograph) Museum purchase 85.69 In the late 1930s, Dorothea Lange and Marion Post Wolcott traveled throughout the rural South and Midwest to take photographs for the Farm Security Administration. The government agency was created to combat poverty during the Depression, and their photographs served to justify federal economic assistance programs. In the image above, two men harvest wheat by hand, while in the image below corn stalks in bundles dry in the sun. Both photographs show humans living in perfect harmony with the land, but many viewers would have seen the farming as pitifully outdated. The men in Lange’s photograph, for example, told her they had never heard of a combine harvester, a machine then widely used on modern farms. Exhibition History"Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, May 3 - June 16, 1985. "History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, June 15 - August 22, 1999. "New Light on Land: Photographs from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 28 - May 15, 2016.Published ReferencesBrooks Johnson. _Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs_. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA. 1985: pp. 74-75.
