Vivid colour photos from the Great Depression show life in one of America's darkest times

Russell Lee/Library of CongressFaro and Doris Caudill, homesteaders, in Pie Town, New Mexico, in late 1940.

The US entered the Great Depression — one of history’s great financial calamities — in the late 1920s, and the country spent most of the 1930s mired in a debilitating economic malaise.

It ultimately took the outbreak of World War II to help the US wrench itself out of the protracted slump.

Photos of America during the Depression, much like the mood of the country, are often bleak, available only in black and white.

But the photos below, produced using colour transparencies taken by various photographers between 1939 and 1941 and compiled by the Library of Congress, show the period and the people who endured it in vivid colour — offering a new way to look at one of America’s most studied historical eras.

Trucks outside of a starch factory, in Caribou, Aroostook County, Maine, in late 1940. There were almost 50 trucks in the line. Some had been waiting for 24 hours for the potatoes to be graded and weighed.

Jack Delano/Library of Congress

Boys fishing in a bayou, in Schriever, Louisiana, in summer 1940. Cajun children in a bayou near a school in Terrebonne, a US Farm Security Administration project.

Marion Post Wolcott/Library of Congress

Hauling crates of peaches from the orchard to the shipping shed, Delta County, Colorado, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

Faro and Doris Caudill, homesteaders, in Pie Town, New Mexico, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

The Caudill family eating dinner in their dugout, in Pie Town, New Mexico, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

Harvesting new corn from the field of Jim Norris, in Pie Town, New Mexico, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

At the Vermont state fair in Rutland, Vermont, in late 1941.

Jack Delano/Library of Congress

Jim Norris, homesteader, Pie Town, New Mexico, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

Distributing surplus commodities in St. Johns, Arizona, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

'Backstage' at the 'girlie' show at the Vermont state fair in Rutland, Vermont, in late 1941.

Jack Delano/Library of Congress

Tying a ribbon on a calf's tail was one of the feature attractions at the rodeo at the Pie Town, New Mexico, fair in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

Day laborers picking cotton near Clarksdale, Mississippi, in late 1939.

Marion Post Wolcott/Library of Congress

Living quarters and a 'juke joint' for migratory workers during a slack season, in Belle Glade, Florida, taken in early 1941.

Marion Post Wolcott/Library of Congress

Men reading headlines posted on the street corner of the Brockton Enterprise newspaper office, in Brockton, Massachusetts, in late 1940.

Jack Delano/Library of Congress

A horse-and-cart team pulling a car out of the mud on a road near Pie Town, New Mexico, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

Barker at the grounds at the Vermont state fair in Rutland, Vermont, in late 1941.

Jack Delano/Library of Congress

Delta County Fair in Colorado, in late 1940.

Russell Lee/Library of Congress

Houses with factories seen in the background, taken sometime between 1941 and 1942.

Library of Congress

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