Migratory Agricultural Workers at Picket's Landing, Virginia
Artist
Jack Delano
(American, 1914 - 1997)
CultureAmerican
Date1940
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 6 1/4 × 9 3/8 in. (15.9 × 23.8 cm)
Overall, Paper: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Overall, Paper: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Fund
Object number84.78.105
Not on view
DescriptionThis is one of a series of 132 FSA photographs of Virginia; all are gelatin silver prints.Label TextJack Delano American, 1914–1997 Migratory Agricultural Workers at Picket's Landing, Virginia. Card Games are Frequent but Money Seldom Used, July 1940 Gelatin silver print (photograph), printed 1984 Here, migrant workers from Florida play a raucous game of chance called Georgia Skin. A favorite among Southern migrants, the game is won when the dealer randomly selects a card that matches one held in a player’s hand. When author, folklorist, and Florida native Zora Neale Hurston described the game, she highlighted the camaraderie among players by describing the “rhythm to the fall of a card” and the rhymes called out by the dealer: “Put the money on the wood and make the bet go good…. Put it in sight and save a fight.” Chrysler Museum purchase 84.78.105 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. Published ReferencesBrooks Johnson. _Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs_. The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA. 1985: p. 88.
