Cotton Picker Machine in Cotton Field at King and Anderson Plantation, Clarksdale, Mississippi

Authors

Marion Post-Walcott

Files

Description

This black and white photograph features a cotton picking machine being driven through a cotton field by one man while another man rides in the back on top of the cotton. The photograph is attributed to photographer, Marion Post-Walcott of King and Anderson Plantation in Clarksdale, Mississippi by the original owners of the photograph.

Marion Post Wolcott (June 7, 1910 – November 24, 1990) is known for her candid documentary photographs taken for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) during America’s Great Depression. Joining Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and other photographers who produced iconic images for the FSA, Wolcott documented America’s staggering wealth inequalities, its race relations, the poverty and deprivation experienced during the Depression, and the benefits to the population of federal subsidies and programs. “As an FSA documentary photographer, I was committed to changing the attitudes of people by familiarizing America with the plight of the underprivileged, especially in rural America,” she once said. Along with images of coal miners, farmers harvesting tobacco fields, and affluent spectators at the races, Wolcott also captured moments of transcendence, such as in Jitterbugging (1939), an iconic image of African Americans dancing in a club.

Publication Date

1955

Time Period

1950-1959

Subjects

Plantations; Pig farming

Geographic Location

Clarksdale, (Miss.)

Object Type

image

Format (original)

photograph: b&W

Format (digital)

PDF

Digital ID

MFM_MSS_837_Wolcott-Photos_003

Source

Mississippi State University Libraries, Manuscripts Archives and Special Collections Division, Manuscripts Unit, Lucius Marion Lampton, MD Historical Images Collection, Mississippiana Collection, Clarksdale/Marion Post-Walcott Subcollection

Repository

Manuscripts

Digital Publisher

Mississippi State University Libraries (electronic version)

Rights

Copyright protected by Mississippi State University Libraries. Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required.

Contact Information

For more information about the contents of this collection, email sp_coll@library.MSState.edu.

Recommended Citation

Cotton Picker Machine in Cotton Field at King and Anderson Plantation, Clarksdale, Mississippi, Lucius Marion Lampton, MD Historical Images Collection, Archives and Special Collections Division, Mississippi State University