Florida Migratory Worker Gathering Onions in a Field Near Accomac, Virginia
Artist
Jack Delano
(American, 1914 - 1997)
CultureAmerican
Date1940
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 9 7/16 × 7 in. (24 × 17.8 cm)
Overall, Paper: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm)
Overall, Mat: 19 15/16 × 16 in. (50.6 × 40.6 cm)
Overall, Paper: 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm)
Overall, Mat: 19 15/16 × 16 in. (50.6 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Fund
Object number84.78.103
Not on view
DescriptionThis is one of a series of 132 FSA photographs of Virginia; all are gelatin silver prints.Label Texttop Jack Delano American, 1914–1997 Florida Migratory Worker Gathering Onions in a Field Near Accomac, Virginia, July 1940 Gelatin silver print (photograph), printed 1984 Chrysler Museum purchase 84.78.103 bottom Jack Delano American, 1914–1997 Florida Migrants in an Onion Field Near Accomac, Virginia, July 1940 Gelatin silver print (photograph), printed 1985 Chrysler Museum purchase 85.1.10 Many farms on the Eastern Shore were subdivided to improve efficiency and to enable small groups of laborers to harvest crops. The smaller farms demanded more intensive labor to yield a decent living than the larger farms. Jack Delano’s images of migrant workers picking onions suggest how workers followed harvests from farm to farm. As Delano recalled, after reaching the Shore workers kept “moving farther and farther north as the crops ripened, picking tomatoes, potatoes, other vegetables, and fruits.” ProvenancePurchased prints from Library of Congress (negatives on file at Library of Congress,) 1984.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. "Reckonings and Reconstructions: Southern Photography from the Do Good Fund," Chrysler Museum of Art, August 11, 2023 - November 5, 2023.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. 87-88.
