For this installment in the series, Kodachrome images from the Library of Congress collection are used that were taken by Russell Lee and Jack Delano. In pre-World War II years both worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) with a group of other very talented and noted photographers. The project documented existing conditions during the Great Depression and the results of relief efforts for disadvantaged farmers, and farm workers.

Russell Lee was born and raised in Ottawa, Illinois. After finishing a college education his first job was as a chemical engineer. Next he became a painter and finally turned back to photography that he learned earlier to assist him with his works of art – he then mastered it before joining the FSA in 1936. Starting in 1947 Lee worked as a photographer in Austin, Texas and later taught photography at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jack Delano was a native Russian born in the village of Voroshilovka in the Ukraine. He moved to the US with his family in 1923 and then studied photography and graphic arts for the next eight years. His first job was as a photographer with the Depression-era Federal Art Project, but he soon joined the FSA and finished his career of government work by joining the United States Office of War Information where he worked as a photographer between 1942 and 1946.

As usual comment on anything you find interesting and add whatever information you can about the trucks and automobiles in the images. All photographs are courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The lead photo (above) by Russell Lee was taken in Pie Town, New Mexico, late in 1940 of a gas station and repair shop. Two visible style gasoline pumps and an early 1930s Ford Truck are seen in this view.

This image by Jack Delano is one of a series of well-known photos that documents both farmers and the public at the 1941 Vermont State Fair in Rutland. This elderly couple appears to be eating lunch behind their GM Sedan? Date and identify the blue sedan built by the Chrysler Corporation.

This view by Jack Delano shows trucks waiting near a food processing facility in Caribou, Maine, the northern-most city in New England, during the fall of 1940. Note the low stake bed bodies used for hauling potatoes in barrels and crates.

This 1941 scene by Russell Lee in Cascade, Idaho shows the center of the small rural City. A year later in 1942 the United States Bureau of Reclamation began a project to dam the northern fork of the Payette River and created the Cascade Reservoir that was finished in 1948.

This photograph taken during 1940 in Colorado at harvest time by Russell Lee shows farm workers cars next to a stack of hay drying. In the image, we see a pair of 1933 or 1934 Ford Sedans, one clean and the other that is quite dirty. The two sedans on either side, we will let our readers identify.

We are back in Pie Town, New Mexico again with Russell Lee at the fair held in the fall of 1940. This car is close to ten years old and looks as though it has led a rough farm life. The positioning of the top bows was changed, and the styling of the covering was modified, and a different rear window is framed in wood.

It took some time to identify exactly what year(s) it was offered in, what nameplate(s) were used on it and what model it is, but we will let our readers who enjoy solving mysteries tells us what they think it is. The correct and complete answers will be posted on Monday.

Another photo from Pie Town, New Mexico by Russell Lee taken in 1940 showing a scene on one of the unimproved roads there. This Model “A” Ford is one of the first Fordor Sedans built starting in mid-1928 and is a Model 60-A that is called a Leatherback. This body style built for Ford by the Briggs Manufacturing Co. featured a brown artificial leather roof covering with a pebble-grained surface finish.

You can view the earlier parts of this new Kodachrome series here.