Photo Essay from the 1930s

.These images are from a photo essay titled Walter Donaldson, Orlando, WV. Mr. Donelson was acclaimed as the One Millionth Pupil who was taught to read and write through WPA Educational classes during the Great Depression.

These photos from the New Deal Network website are an uncanny peek at life in the 1930s. There were Donelsons, or Donaldsons, in the Orlando area by 1860 but not in what we would today call Orlando. The program, the photos and Mr. Donaldson were in Sand Fork, or more precisely, Rocky Fork of Indian Fork of Sand Fork of the Little Kanawha River, in Gilmer County. In the 1950s I knew homes and landscapes exactly like the ones in these photos.

Check out the Donaldson Photo Essay. It would be great to hear whether others think the photographer captured the time and place and people.