During the Great Depression, the Farm Security Administration dispatched photographers across the United States to document poverty in America. The images they captured are some of the most iconic photos in history.

In West Virginia were two of the project’s most illustrious names: Marion Post Wolcott and Ben Shahn. Their best-known images of the state depict the hardscrabble life of coal miners there. These images have come to define West Virginia in the public eye, contributing to a persisting impression of a state full of hillbillies and hicks, a fact which Anthony Bourdain notes during his visit to McDowell County for “Parts Unknown.” 

But those images dominate only because Wolcott’s and Shahn’s bosses wanted them to. Roy Stryker, the FSA photo editor in Washington, intended the photos to reinforce New Deal ideals and persuade Americans that the government needed their tax dollars to relieve the suffering of the poor.

But the West Virginia that Wolcott and Shahn witnessed was far deeper and more rounded than the selected images suggest. The photographers didn’t put their cameras down when poverty and suffering weren’t manifest. The two documented communities that brim with life, celebration, pride, and hard work.

The images rejected in Washington were, thankfully, never discarded. Tens of thousands of them survive, but for most of the 20th century it was necessary to travel to the Library of Congress to see them. In 2010 the library restarted the process of scanning the project’s 175,000 black-and-white negatives. The public can now browse the lion’s share of the collection with just a few mouse clicks. Here are a few of the many that speak to a different West Virginia from the one popularized by the FSA.

Sunday in Scotts Run, October 1935. Shahn's “Scotts Run, West Virginia” painting echoes this photograph (click on photo to see the painting). Photo by Ben Shahn.
Sunday in Scotts Run, October 1935. Shahn’s “Scotts Run, West Virginia” painting echoes this photograph (click on photo to see the painting). Photo by Ben Shahn.
Children of homesteaders play on their front lawn in Tygart Valley, September 1938. As part of the New Deal, the federal government built three homestead communities in West Virginia. The program provided employment opportunities, farmland, and modern, affordable housing for some 25,000 families. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
Children of homesteaders play on their front lawn in Tygart Valley, September 1938. As part of the New Deal, the federal government built three homestead communities in West Virginia. The program provided employment opportunities, farmland, and modern, affordable housing for some 25,000 families. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
Photo 1: A miner's wife on the porch of their home, an abandoned company store in Pursglove, 1938. Photo 2: Miners eating ice cream. Photos by Marion Post Wolcott.
Photo 1: A miner's wife on the porch of their home, an abandoned company store in Pursglove, 1938. Photo 2: Miners eating ice cream. Photos by Marion Post Wolcott.
Photo 1: A miner’s wife on the porch of their home, an abandoned company store in Pursglove, 1938. Photo 2: Miners eating ice cream. Photos by Marion Post Wolcott.
Residents of Jere eat at a Sunday school picnic brought to their town by neighboring parishes, September 1938. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
Residents of Jere eat at a Sunday school picnic brought to their town by neighboring parishes, September 1938. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
The yearly “Believe it or Not” carnival entertains a crowd in Granville, September, 1938. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
The yearly “Believe it or Not” carnival entertains a crowd in Granville, September, 1938. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
Photo 1: Two boys watch a puppet show in Red House, 1937. Photo 2: A band rehearses outdoors in Red House, 1937. Photos by Ben Shahn.
Photo 1: Two boys watch a puppet show in Red House, 1937. Photo 2: A band rehearses outdoors in Red House, 1937. Photos by Ben Shahn.
Photo 1: Two boys watch a puppet show in Red House, 1937. Photo 2: A band rehearses outdoors in Red House, 1937. Photos by Ben Shahn.

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Overview of Freeze Fork, October 1935. Shahn tried often to convey the massive scale of the coal industry. Photo by Ben Shahn.
Overview of Freeze Fork, October 1935. Shahn tried often to convey the massive scale of the coal industry. Photo by Ben Shahn.
Children play with sand in Tygart Valley, September 1938. The large black circle at the lower left of this frame was made by a hole punch, the preferred method of the photo editor to reject frames he did not wish to distribute. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
Children play with sand in Tygart Valley, September 1938. The large black circle at the lower left of this frame was made by a hole punch, the preferred method of the photo editor to reject frames he did not wish to distribute. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
An unemployed coal miner in Scotts Run, September 1938. Abandoned homes in Twin Branch, September, 1938. They were originally built for workers at a mine owned by Ford, but when the workers began to form a union, Ford shut down the mine. The workers, which Wolcott estimated at 1000 men, were forced from the homes. Photos by Marion Post Wolcott.
An unemployed coal miner in Scotts Run, September 1938. Abandoned homes in Twin Branch, September, 1938. They were originally built for workers at a mine owned by Ford, but when the workers began to form a union, Ford shut down the mine. The workers, which Wolcott estimated at 1000 men, were forced from the homes. Photos by Marion Post Wolcott.
An unemployed coal miner in Scotts Run, September 1938. Abandoned homes in Twin Branch, September, 1938. They were originally built for workers at a mine owned by Ford, but when the workers began to form a union, Ford shut down the mine. The workers, which Wolcott estimated at 1000 men, were forced from the homes. Photos by Marion Post Wolcott.
A musician in Scotts Run, October 1935. Photo by Ben Shahn.
A musician in Scotts Run, October 1935. Photo by Ben Shahn.
Coal miners gamble on the porch of the company store in Chaplin, September 1938. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.
Coal miners gamble on the porch of the company store in Chaplin, September 1938. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott.