Framed or unframed, desk size to sofa size, printed by us in Arizona and Alabama since 2007. Explore now.
Shorpy is funded by you. Patreon contributors get an ad-free experience.
Learn more.
January 1939. "Herrin, Illinois. Family on relief living in shanty at city dump." Photo by Arthur Rothstein for the Resettlement Administration. View full size.
If only they had known how valuable those porcelain auto parts and Coke signs, would be in 75 years, they would never have nailed them to their walls.
Okay, I won't be complaining about anything for at least a week. These are some unusually powerful images, even for Shorpy.
Herrin is in southern Illinois, near Carbondale. This part of the state is known as "Little Egypt," which explains nearby Cairo. It's largely a farming area although some coal mining was done, too. Twenty people were killed in 1920 during a mining strike. The nickname "Little Egypt" dates to the early 1800s, possibly because of the farming or because it's between major rivers.
On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5