Great Depression era? - I don't think so.

[nzcarnerd]

This photo was posted on a facebook page, captioned -

 

"A family travels through Mobile in search of work at the height of America's Great Depression. This photo was taken by noted Mobile photographer Erik Overbey.

Even their car is depressed..

Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library"

 

I think that is a new 1921 Chevrolet FB in the showroom which suggest a more likely date of 1921 for the photo.

 

My thought is that it is simply a family on a long distance trip in their not-very-old Chev 490 - something not that many people did in 1921.

 

Any thoughts? Maybe ideas on the clothing worn by the two guys in suits?

[keiser31]

Probably just a family on a trip. The dust bowl fiasco was early 1930s as well as the Great Depression. Looks like a tent and luggage.

[Larry Schramm]

Pretty tough looking car.  The front right wheel does not look healthy/right.

[mike6024]

The picture was taken from here, and it is captioned Great Depression.

 

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3608

 

 

[mike6024]

[nzcarnerd]

59 minutes ago, mike6024 said:

The picture was taken from here, and it is captioned Great Depression.

 

http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-3608

 

 

 

 

It would appear that a myth is being perpetuated. History being rewritten.

 

 

[mike6024]

I am trying to find some other source for this picture.

 

Erik Overbey Collection, The Doy Leale McCall Rare Book and Manuscript Library

 

Family in Mobile during the Great Depression
A family travels through Mobile in search of work at the height of America's Great Depression. This photo was taken by noted Mobile photographer Erik Overbey.

 

 

Erik Overbey (1882-1977), a native of Hafslo, Sogn, Norway, operated a photographic studio in Mobile from 1903 to 1958. During that time he chronicled the life of the city in thousands of ways. Overbey used an 8 x 10 camera until the late 1940s and a 5 x 7 thereafter. His work was straight and clean, and he probably thought of himself as a craftsman rather than an artist. Although he made thousands of portraits, he was in his element as an industrial photographer. Using form and mass, he composed to make the commonplace extraordinary. Perhaps in hopes of reprint business, Overbey purchased the negative collection of an earlier studio, W. A. Reed. As a result the Overbey Collection includes negatives dating back to the 1880s.

OVERBEY, ERIK (81-02-51, 81-03-48, 81-07-50, 81-03-49, 85-01-01, 85-02-02, 85-07-04, 85-08-05, 85-03-03, 09-07-51)
Within the larger collections of Erik Overbey are more than 45,000 portraits dating from circa 1880 to the 1950s. Included are glass plates, nitrate negatives, and safety negatives.

 

https://www.southalabama.edu/libraries/mccallarchives/overbey.html

 

Edited February 8, 2020 by mike6024 (see edit history)

[mike6024]