Russell Lee
Soda jerker flipping ice cream into malted milk shakes. Corpus Christi, Texas

Public Domain

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Artist Russell Lee (American, 1903–1986)American, 1903–1986

CultureAmerican

Titles

Soda jerker flipping ice cream into malted milk shakes. Corpus Christi, Texas

DateFebruary 1939, printed 1960s

PlaceCorpus Christi, Texas, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 9 5/8 × 13 1/8 in. (24.4 × 33.4 cm)
Sheet: 10 7/8 × 13 7/8 in. (27.6 × 35.3 cm)

Credit LineGift of Anne Wilkes Tucker in honor of Frank Karel

Object number2009.1318

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionUnder the U.S. government’s New Deal programs during the Great Depression, a photographic division of the Farm Security Administration was created to document the dispossessed and unemployed struggling under severe climatic and economic conditions. Between 1935 and 1944, the federal agency produced an archive of more than 160,000 photographs to disseminate to newspapers and magazines throughout the country. Over time, the mission shifted from documenting rural suffering to compiling the definitive visual archive of a historic era, expanding to include upbeat images such as Russell Lee’s photograph of a soda jerk’s tricks that would inspire optimism in America’s youth and future. Lee worked for the FSA for six years, creating the largest body of images and covering more geographic territory than any of the other photographers.
ProvenanceAnne Wilkes Tucker, Houston; given to MFAH, 2009.
Exhibition History“Made for Magazines: Iconic 20th-Century Photographs,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 9–May 4, 2014.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

In ink bottom left: "#163"
In pencil lower left: "JES 440.78P"

verso bottom center in ink "Russell Lee"

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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