Jack Delano, father of Trinity College professor and artist Pablo Delano, was a photographer for the federal government’s Farm Security Administration in the 1940s. A Russian Jew born in an area that is now part of Ukraine, he came to the U.S. with his parents in the 1920s, and around World War II, permanently settled in Puerto Rico where Pablo was born and raised. Jack Delano was also a composer of note. His photos are a wonderful documentation of life in Connecticut in the 1940s, some of Russian Jews who had escaped the pogroms in Europe (See “Hebrew Tillers of the Soil,” Spring 2006). Here’s a small sample of Jack Delano’s FSA images from the Library of Congress. Find more at LOC.gov.
See related story “Visually Breathtaking Hartford Explored,” Pablo Delano, Summer 2021
LISTEN to our interview with Pablo Delano, “Connecticut Seen: The Photography of Pablo Delano and Jack Delano,” Grating the Nutmeg, Episode 123.
“Mr. and Mrs. Colson and one of their children. Tobacco farmers, Suffield, Connecticut,” 1940. photo: Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress
“Mr. L[eon] Broder, one of the leading Jewish citizens of Colchester, Connecticut. He owns a large feed, lumber and farmers supply store in the town,” 1940. photo: Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress
Abraham Lapping in his barn, Colchester, 1940. photo: Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress. See “Hebrew Tillers of the Soil,” Spring 2006
A market in Norwich, 1940. photo: Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress
“Yauco, Puerto Rico (vicinity). Harvesting cane in a sugar field,” January, 1942. photo: Jack Delano, Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress