Community Garden Photos as Wartime Propaganda

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While I was scrolling through the Library of Congress’s old photos in search of WPA workers (for this post), I came across 1942 images of people working in my town’s community gardens ( thus, gardenblog-worthy). The text for the photo above reveals that the gardeners are tenants (as all residents of the new town were at that time), that they all received a 50-foot plot and that it cost the gardeners $1 to have their plot plowed.

The Plots Today

I learned more about the original community gardens from their website today, which nicely acknowledges the 80-year history and provides an update:

In the early years, 300 allotment gardens were located in five areas on the edge of town. During World War II, 350 people planted victory gardens in Greenbelt. Today, roughly 78 plots remain of varying sizes.

Gardening in Greenbelt has always been popular but a renaissance movement has sprouted up in recent years in support of self-sufficiency and eating seasonally to improve health through local, organic farming and sustainable agriculture. [The community garden club’s] mission is to promote gardening in the community. To stimulate, foster and share knowledge of gardening techniques and sustainable practices and to promote a love a gardening among amateurs.

The photos were taken in June, on presumably a hot day, but still, were there no concerns back then about sunburn, ticks, or mosquitos? They look nothing like I do in the garden but maybe I’m an outlier so I’m curious: how do YOU dress for the occasion?

This fashionable gardener stood out among the seeming beach-goers.

The purpose of the photos and the fascinating woman who took them

Marjory Collins. Credit: Wikipedia.

After collecting all the garden photos I could find, I googled the photographer’s name and discovered a pioneer in photography, and a very rare female one – Marjory Collins. (What a bio! From wealth to left-wing activist, and I lost track of her divorces.)

Marjory Collins described herself as a “rebel looking for a cause.” She began her photojournalism career in New York City in the 1930s by working for such magazines as PM and U.S. Camera. At a time when relatively few women were full-time magazine photographers, such major photo agencies as Black Star, Associated Press, PIX, and Time, Inc., all represented her work.

In 1941, Collins joined Roy Stryker’s team of photographers at the U.S. Office of War Information to document home front activities during World War II. She created remarkable visual stories of small town life, ethnic communities, and women war workers. The more than 3,000 images she took in 1942-43 are preserved in the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Source.

Her home-front photos in Greenbelt weren’t just of gardens – they’re gems documenting everyday life of Americans in that era. But interestingly, the purpose of the photos wasn’t to document history so much as to shore up support for the war effort and to showcase American life to our enemies.

Here’s a look at more of her home-life photos for the Office of War Information, all taken in the DC area. And here’s another collection. I find them fascinating.

After the war Collins went on to cover the world as a photographer, writer and editor, primarily covering civil rights, the Vietnam War and women’s movements. I especially love this detail of her career: “Collins was very active politically; a feminist, she founded the journal Prime Time (1971–76) “for the liberation of women in the prime of life.”

Works from her long career are available here to see and even download, for noncommercial uses.