Sarasota Trailer Park, 1941

Library of Congress This photo by the important Depression Era photographer Marion Wolcott is one of a large series that documents life at a trailer park in Sarasota Florida in 1941. As the pictures show, these camps became much more than winter havens for snowbirds. During the Depression, trailer parks were a refuge for families who had lost their houses due to financial troubles. As is true today, older people retired there, drawn to the warmer weather. Wolcott was employed by the Office of War Information (earlier the Farm Security Administration) to document everyday life in the US. As always in these photos, I wonder whether or not they were posed. Most likely the simple dresses were part of the women’s daily wardrobes, but did they really wear shoes with heels all day long? And on the grass? Two of them meet all the stereotypes for older women of that era, with their hair in tight buns and granny glasses. The one facing us shows, once again, the popularity of polka dots. Library…