About once a year, photos from the gargantuan collection, painstakingly arranged and maintained by Indiana University, left behind by amateur photographer and Indiana University grad Charles W. Cushman crop up on one website or another. The photos, spanning 1938 to 1969 (he passed away in 1972), are a treasure trove spanning the entire country (and others) but have a particularly nice collection of photos from that period taken here in Chicago. Our pals at Gapers Block had a fantastic series where they recreated some of Cushman's shots. And Vocalo's Lee Bey took a look at the architectural aspects of Cushman's collections earlier this spring. There's also his NYC shots which have been featured on the Mothership Gothamist. So, now that we're in the dog days of summer, we thought we'd visit the archives and take a few spins through some of his photos over the next few days. more ›

While we take a short break from bringing you more of Charles Cushman's 60's era photos this week, we stumbled across a repository of striking color photos from even earlier in our history. These beautiful color photos are from the Library of Congress as part of a series from the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, as part of an effort to document how the Depression affected the country. This particular selection of railroad-centric Chicago shots by Jack Delano show the city as an industrial, agricultural and transportational hub in the days before air travel became dominant. The Denver Post put together this series of photographs spanning the nation, all of which are worth looking at, but naturally the ones featuring Chicago caught our eyes the most. You can find the rest of the FSA/OWI series here. more ›

About once a year, photos from the gargantuan collection left behind by amateur photographer and Indiana University grad Charles W. Cushman, painstakingly arranged and maintained by Indiana University, crop up on one website or another. The photos, spanning 1938 to 1969 (he passed away in 1972), are a treasure trove spanning the entire country (and others) but have a particularly nice collection of photos from that period taken here in Chicago where Charles lived at several points of his life. Our pals at Gapers Block had a fantastic series where they recreated some of Cushman's shots. And Vocalo's Lee Bey took a look at the architectural aspects of Cushman's collections earlier this spring. There's also his NYC shots which have been featured on the Mothership Gothamist. So, now that we're in the dog days of summer, we thought we'd visit the archives and take a few spins through some of his photos over the next few days. more ›