As America struggled in the throes of the Great Depression, a team of photographers was dispatched across the country to capture moments of their lives.
The project was an attempt to win political favor for government programs, including Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Resettlement Administration in 1935. The initiative aimed to aid the poorest one-third of displaced farmers through resettlement and low-interest loans.
The project, which became known as "The Files," amassed some 170,000 images between 1935 and 1944, and included the works of famous photographers like Arthur Rothstein and Dorothea Lange. A team at Yale University recently geotagged the photos and created a searchable database.
