Jack Delano was one of the photographers who worked in Roy Stryker’s Farm Security Administration photography program in the early 1940s, traveling the American countryside, photographing people and places with the stated goal of “introducing America to Americans.” In 1942 and ’43, Delano spent time in the rail yards of Chicago, documenting the busy freight hub and the countless workers who kept the trains running 24 hours a day. Some of his most striking images were made on Kodachrome color transparencies, wonderfully preserved in the Library of Congress today. Collected below, a handful of images from Chicago as it was some 75 years ago.
Jack Delano's Color Photos of Chicago's Rail Yards in the 1940s
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Read moreA view of part of the South Water Street freight depot of the Illinois Central Railroad and buildings in downtown Chicago on May 1, 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreL. Logan, of West Chicago, a boilermaker at the roundhouse in the Proviso yard in Melrose Park, near Chicago, photographed in December 1942 #
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Read moreIn the roundhouse of a Chicago and North Western Railroad yard in December 1942 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreA view of part of the South Water Street Illinois Central Railroad freight terminal in April 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreA switchman throwing a switch at Chicago and North Western Railroad's Proviso yard in April 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreChicago and North Western Railroad locomotive shops, photographed in December 1942 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreA welder works in the roundhouse of the Chicago and North Western Railroad's Proviso yard in December 1942. #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreMike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks at the Proviso yard, photographed in April 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreWorking on a locomotive at the 40th Street railroad shops in Chicago in December 1942 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreIllinois Central Railroad freight cars at the South Water Street freight terminal in Chicago in April 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreThe night is lit up by a giant Pabst Blue Ribbon sign above Chicago's South Water Street freight terminal in April 1943. #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreA long-exposure view of lantern lights in a departure yard in Chicago and North Western Railroad's Proviso yard at twilight in December 1942 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreLocomotives in a Chicago and North Western Railroad yard near Chicago sometime between December 1942 and May 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreThe Chicago and North Western Railroad tower man R. W. Mayberry of Elmhurst, Illinois, at work in the Proviso yard in May 1943. He operates a set of retarders and switches at the hump. #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreThe freight depot of the U.S. Army consolidating station in Chicago in April 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreFreight cars are maneuvered in a Chicago and North Western Railroad yard in December 1942. #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreWilliam London has been a railroad worker for 25 years, now working at the roundhouse at the Proviso yard. Photographed in December 1942. #
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Read moreThe yardmaster's office at the receiving yard in North Proviso in December 1942 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read morePutting the finishing touches on a rebuilt Chicago and North Western Railroad caboose at the rip tracks in the Proviso yard in Chicago in April 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress -
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Read moreAn Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad switchman demonstrating a signal with a fusee, which is used at twilight and dawn when visibility is poor. This signal means "stop." Photographed in Calumet City in January 1943. #
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Read moreAn Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad switch engine in a yard near the Calumet Park stockyards in Calumet City, near Chicago, in January 1943 #
Jack Delano / Library of Congress
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