Untitled (man in suit with bedroll walking beside poster)
Artist/Culture
Weegee
(American, 1899–1968)
Dateabout 1950
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensions27 x 34.1 cm (10 5/8 x 13 7/16 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineSarah C. Garver Fund
Terms
Object number1989.120
Label TextAmerican citizens are granted the right to a certain level of social and economic security though government assistance, or welfare. In Weegee’s untitled photograph, a suited man carrying his belongings personifies the struggle of homelessness, which has long plagued the United States. In 2016 the government budgeted $5.5 billion in programs and assistance aimed at ending homelessness.
Wolcott’s Federal Security Administration photograph portrays the two children of a North Carolina tenant farmer. During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s thousands of farmers experienced a drought that destroyed their crops and eliminated their source of economic stability. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established several federal programs to stabilize the nation’s economy and support its citizens. Ever the source of political tension, the extent of government intervention in individual welfare remains a hotly contested issue.
On View
Not on view
John T. Stringer
November 1963
