"Public privies, Pie Town, New Mexico."
Russell Lee, photographer. Created June, 1940.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, FSA-OWI Collection.

Some photos were intentionally designed to chronicle inequalities and injustices that their creators (and those who commissioned such work) hoped the Federal Government would remedy. This photograph of a public privy in New Mexico reminds viewers—assumed to be urban, educated, and comfortably situated—that many Americans still lacked basic sanitary amenities.

Copyright © 1997, 2002 University of Pennsylvania HSS
Revised: 09-Feb-2002