Through the 1930s when the Resettlement Administration/Farm Security Administration photography project was in full swing it was under constant attack by Congress. Not only did a faction of Congress oppose the social programs FDR implemented, including the agricultural programs, they also didn’t want photographers making pictures of the programs. Various initiatives to defund or otherwise thwart the program were unsuccessful until after the FSA became the Office of War Information in the 1940s.

It looks like the current Congress has succeeded where its predecessors in the 1930s couldn’t. As part of the federal government shutdown of October 2013, the Library of Congress is closed, both in DC and online. All those photographs in the library’s file and digitized on the website? Inaccessible.

I guess they move slowly, but they eventually get what they want.