In retrospect: The construction and communication of a national visual memory

This dissertation investigates the institutional production of an American national visual memory through the commemorative display of historical photographs. Commemorative display communicates a sense of collective identity and memory through the use of artifacts of the past. It is one of the methods by which a society constructs and communicates a sense of nationalism. These issues were explored through the Depression era Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information photograph collection as it has been used in exhibits and texts over the last fifty years. Specific attention was given to the changing balance of images of extreme poverty and those of middle-class small town. Four approaches were utilized, each providing a different perspective of this phenomenon. A historical analysis of the cultural and economic context, and the initial production and use of the photographs during the period from 1935 to 1960 was made. An in-depth investigation was made, through exhibit records and interviews, of the selection practices of two retrospective exhibits of the collection; "The Bitter Years, 1935-1941" at the Museum of Modern Art in 1962, and "Documenting America, 1935-1943" at the Library of Congress in 1988. A textual analysis of the range of uses to which a sample of the better known photographs have been put over the last 50 years was used as a measure of the discursive production of a national memory of the Depression. Finally, the critical formation of a specifically 'artistic' reputation for some of the FSA-OWI photographers was examined as also constructive of the meaning and evaluation of the photographs. This study shows that when social relationships change, the visual memory changes. In other words, when the social discourse and policy through which the poor are dealt with changes, the visualization of them in the public culture also changes. And also, when the social body changes, generationally, the memory also changes. Those images important to