Two Men, Two Bridges, 1947
Gregorio Prestopino (1907–1984)
Oil on canvas
Estate of Gregorio Prestopino

Born in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood, Gregorio Prestopino, or “Presto,” as he came to be known, first set out to be a sign painter. After he received a scholarship to the National Academy of Design at age 14 he was influenced by the Ashcan School, an early 20th century group known for their gritty urban subject matter. He had a studio under the Brooklyn Bridge in a building that also served as a boarding house for sailors. He painted many scenes along the waterfront.

Decoration Day, 1934
Gregorio Prestopino (1907–1984)
Egg tempera on board
Estate of Gregorio Prestopino

Decoration Day was the original name for Memorial Day, which honors those who have died while serving in the United States Military. It was called Decoration Day because of the flowers, flags, and wreaths decorating the graves of the deceased. Prestopino’s anti-war sentiments, which would drive him to join the anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s, can be felt in this tragic painting of war heroes.

For All These Rights We’ve Just Begun to Fight, 1946
Ben Shahn (1898–1969)
Paper on board
Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries

In 1944, Ben Shahn became the head of the graphics department for the Political Action Committee of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO-PAC). This was the first political action committee (PAC) in the country. It was created to elect candidates who would build on the progressive policies of the New Deal. Shahn’s posters, like this one demanding that basic standards of living be treated as rights, played a role in the 1946 congressional elections. In a 1968 interview, Shahn said, “Propaganda is to me a noble word. It means you believe something very strongly and you want other people to believe it; you want to propagate your faith.”

Madame Lucie Dreyfus Sortant de la Prison de Rennes, 1930
Ben Shahn (1898–1969)
Gouache on paper
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walker Evans Archive, 1994 (1994.263.105)

This painting is one of a series of ten by Shahn, illustrating scenes and characters from the Dreyfus Affair, which involved Alfred Dreyfus (1859–1935), a Jewish artillery captain in the French army who was convicted of treason for passing military secrets to the Germans. The evidence against Dreyfus was fabricated as a result of antisemitism in the French army. In 1898 French writer Emile Zola famously sent an open letter, titled, J’Accuse! to French president Felix Faure in defense of Dreyfus who was eventually exonerated and reinstated in the army. Shahn learned of the case while traveling in France. The Dreyfus Affair series was the first of several Shahn created about major trials. The following year Shahn did a series of paintings on the story of Sacco and Vanzetti, the Italian born anarchists who were convicted of murder, despite scant evidence, and executed. A later series focused on Tom Mooney, who was wrongfully convicted of planting a bomb during a parade.

The Clinic, 1944
Ben Shahn (1898–1969)
Tempera on paper mounted on Masonite
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Eva Underhill Holbrook Memorial Collection of American Art, University purchase GMOA 1948.204

This work was one of more than 100 paintings included in the State Department’s Advancing American Art, a project which planned to exhibit American art worldwide to show the country’s diversity and powerful new art movement. Exhibitions were held in New York, Paris, Czechoslovakia, and Cuba before President Harry Truman wrote to the Assistant Secretary of State stating that modern art was “merely the vaporings of a half-baked lazy people.” Within 48 hours the project began shutting down. Ben Shahn was in good company though, other artists included: Georgia O’Keeffe, Stuart Davis, Jacob Lawrence, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, Romare Bearden, Max Weber, Charles Sheeler, and John Marin, to name a few. The government auctioned their works as “war surplus” in 1948. Surrounded by the green tile walls of a prenatal clinic two women wait to be seen. The question posed in the poster behind them feels as relevant today as it must have in 1944. President Truman would be the first president to suggest a national health insurance program in 1945.

Cabrer Hat Factory, Ponce, Puerto Rico, 1947
Louise Rosskam (1910–2003)
Silver gelatin print
Collection of Gary Saretzky

Edwin and Louise Rosskam worked as photographers for the Office of Information for Puerto Rico, a government agency on the island that reported to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Their project involved photographic coverage of the social and economic conditions of the island. Their archive encompassed rural and urban life: housing, health care, education, agriculture, transportation, religion, recreation, and politics. Louise became the campaign photographer for Luis Muñoz Marin, the first popularly elected governor of Puerto Rico.

Amateur Radio Night, 1944
Louise Rosskam (1910–2003)
Silver gelatin print
Collection of Ani Rosskam and Bill Leech

Thomas Jefferson Robinson, billed as “the Catskinner from Elk Basin,” and his daughter Sally June sing a cowboy song for Carter Oil Company’s Amateur Radio Night in Elk Basin, Wyoming.

In 1943, Louise and Edwin Rosskam began as freelance photographers for the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey to show the human side of oil use. Although they had reservations about working for a powerful corporation and making pictures to improve its public image, they felt they could contribute patriotic service by showing oil’s role in the war and traveled to all corners of the country while being generously compensated. They later spoke about their Standard Oil years as among the best of their lives. Images like this one were intended to show the oil company’s treatment of its employees and their families in a positive light.

Towboat Thomas Moses, c. 1945
Edwin Rosskam (1903–1985)
Silver gelatin print
Collection of Gary Saretzky

Living with pilots, captains, mates, deckhands, cooks, and chambermaids, Edwin and Louise Rosskam photographed life on towboats that pushed barges of oil and other goods along the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. They were especially swept up by the distinct culture of river life and the people who endured long periods of isolation. They published Towboat River, a documentary photo-book chronicling the history, sociology, and anthropology of the culture.

Motorcycle show barker at the New Jersey State Fair, Trenton, New Jersey, 1947
Sol Libsohn (1914–2001)
Silver gelatin print
Estate of Sol Libsohn

Lunch counter in Trylon Diner, Clinton, NJ, 1945
Sol Libsohn (1914–2001)
Silver gelatin print
Estate of Sol Libsohn 

Sol Libsohn traveled and lived with truck drivers over two months for his photographic series “The Trucking Story.” He made late-night portraits of the waitresses, diners, and other roadside attractions the truckers encountered on their cross-country runs.

Iron Worker Rigging a Section of Standpipe, Bayway Refinery, Linden, New Jersey, 1948
Sol Libsohn (1914–2001)
Silver gelatin print
Estate of Sol Libsohn

Toward the end of World War II, Sol Libsohn was hired by Roy Stryker, to work for the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. Stryker had launched the documentary photography project of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) – hiring legendary photographers like Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn, and Louise Rosskam. When the FSA photographic unit disbanded Stryker went to work on a public relations documentary project for Standard Oil, employing first the Rosskams and then Libsohn. 

The NJ oil project paid $50 a day, allowing Libsohn to move his family from his fifth-floor walkup in New York, into a home in Roosevelt. He had visited Ben Shahn, one of his photographic heroes, in Roosevelt, and moved there in 1947.

Farmers at an Inn, Pennsylvania, 1945
Sol Libsohn (1914–2001)
Silver gelatin print
Estate of Sol Libsohn 

Libsohn lived in Roosevelt for the rest of his life. He described the town as a “monument to a democracy of various ideas, various peoples, various everything and a nature preservation idea, and a decent upbringing for your kids idea. It is really... it’s a monument that should be preserved, as well as any monument of FDR, as well as any monument of Abe Lincoln; this is a monument to how democracy can work if it’s encouraged.”

Children in car parked in tomato field where their parents, migrant farm workers, are picking tomatoes. Cranbury, New Jersey, 1948
Sol Libsohn (1914–2001)
Silver gelatin print
Estate of Sol Libsohn

Known for his social-realist images of ordinary Americans, Sol Libsohn’s work was included in The Family of Man, the landmark photographic exhibition curated by Edward Steichen at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955. In an oral history Libsohn said, “What makes a picture important is...because it’s really recorded...not only an incident, but also a place that somehow relates to the growth of the United States of America in some essential way.”

Late Sun
Elizabeth Dauber (1910–2005)
Oil on canvas
Collection of Paul and Sara Prestopino