Woman and Boy Making Straw Hats, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands 1939

This black and white photograph, titled "Woman and Boy Making Straw Hats, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands," was taken in 1939 by American photographer Marvin Breckinridge Patterson. The photograph captures a woman and a boy in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, engaged in the traditional craft of straw hat making. Patterson's photograph, with its focus on the individuals and their craft, exemplifies his approach to documentary photography, often capturing the daily life and activities of people in their natural settings. The photograph is part of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) collection, a project that documented the social and economic conditions of Americans during the Great Depression and the New Deal era.