Marion Post Walcott, woman photographer

It is the birthday of photographer Marion Post Wolcott (1910), whose photographs for the Farm Security Administration of rural families during the Depression helped establish the need for federal assistance for those hardest hit by the economic downturn. She also broke gender barriers working as a newspaper photojournalist. Her work is preserve at the Library of Congress. When Kodak provided rolls of its new Kodachrome film to the FSA, she photographed this scene at a juke joint in Belle Glade, Florida, in February 1941.

Happy birthday, Edward Steichen

It is the birthday of photographer Edward Steichen (1879), who is remembered as the first modern fashion photographer, although he did many other subjects as well. He was a photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines and for New York advertising agencies. He also served as director of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Happy birthday, Margaret Bourke-White

It is the birthday of photographer Margaret Bourke-White (1904), who broke several gender barriers in her career, including becoming the first woman combat photographer and the first woman photographer for Life magazine. She was also the first foreign photographer allowed to shoot pictures in Soviet Russia. Her photograph of the Fort Peck Dam appeared on the cover of the first Life magazine in 1936. One of her most famous pictures, Kentucky Flood, was taken of Dust Bowl victims during the Depression in the 1930s.