Daily Photo — “Country Store, 1939”

Use the photos posted in this feature for writing prompts, warm-up activities, drawing templates or as part of a photo analysis.

Here are two different views of the same country store in rural North Carolina in 1939.  This is a wonderful pair as you can compare and contrast not only the two images taken at different times from just about the same position, but also it speaks volumes to the conditions in the South at the time both racially and economically.  Plus, I absolutely LOVE all the advertisements and background details.  Thanks to Google Maps, you can also see what it looks like today!

IMAGE 1:

July 1939. Gordonton, N.C. “Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway.” 4×5 nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration. 

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IMAGE 2:

July 1939. “Daughter of white tobacco sharecropper at country store. Person County, North Carolina.” Medium-format nitrate negative by Dorothea Lange. 

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(Source)