regions of Arkansas and Louisiana, 1935; traveled
through Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, North Caro-
lina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and West Virginia photo-
graphing rural America, 1937; employment transferred
from Special Skills to Roy Stryker’s Historical Section,
1938; spent six weeks photographing small-town life in
Ohio, 1938; left the FSA to work on the Bronx Central
Post Office Mural and effectively ended photographic
career, 1938; honorary doctorate from Harvard Univer-
sity, 1967. Died in New York, 14 March 1968. Photo-
graphic archive acquired in 1970 by Fogg Art Museum,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusettes.Individual Exhibitions
1969 Ben Shahn as Photographer; Fogg Art Museum, Har-
vard University; Cambridge, Massachusetts
1988 Ben Shahn in Ohio, the Summer of 1938; Cultural Arts
Commission; City of Upper Arlington, Ohio
1995 Ben Shahn and the Task of Photography in the 1930s;
Hunter College Art Galleries; New York
2000 Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern
Times; Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts and traveling
Group Exhibitions
1936 Resettlement Administration Exhibit; Museum of
Modern Art; New York; Texas Centennial Exposition;
Dallas and traveling
1938 How American People Live; Grand Central Palace;
New York
1962 The Bitter Years, 1935–1941; Museum of Modern Art;
New York
1980 Ohio: A Photographic Portrait, 1935–1941. Farm
Security Administration Photographs; Akron Art Insti-
tute; Akron, Ohio
1985 FSA: The Illiterate Eye: Photographs from the Farm
Security Administration; Hunter College Art Gallery;
New York
1999 Propaganda and Dreams: Photographing the 1930s in
the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.; Corcoran Gallery of Art;
Washington, D.C.; International Center of Photogra-
phy; New York and traveling
Selected Works
New York, 1933–1935
New York State Prison System, 1934
Mining Communities, West Virginia and Kentucky, 1935
Cotton Pickers, Arkansas and Louisiana, 1935
Rural America, Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, North
Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia,
1937
Ohio, 1938
Further Reading
Anderson, Sherwood.Home Town. New York: Alliance
Book Corp., 1940.
Ben Shahn at Harvard: http://www.artmuseums.harvard.
edu/Shahn/index.html.
Ben Shahn in Ohio, the Summer of 1938. Arlington, Ohio:
Cultural Arts Commission, City of Upper Arlington,
1988.
Carr, Carolyn Kinder.Ohio: A Photographic Portrait, 1938–
1941: Farm Security Administration Photographs.Akron,
Ohio: Akron Art Institute, 1980.
Edwards, Susan. ‘‘Ben Shahn: The Road South.’’History of
Photography, 19 (1995).
———.Ben Shahn and the Task of Photography in the
1930s. New York: Hunter College Art Galleries, 1995.
Greenfeld, Howard.Ben Shahn: An Artist’s Life. New
York: Random House, 1998.
Kao, Deborah Martin, Laura Katzman, and Jenna Web-
ster.Ben Shahn’s New York: The Photography of Modern
Time. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.
MacLeish, Archibald.Land of the Free. New York: Har-
court, Brace, 1938.
Morse, John D., ed.Ben Shahn. New York: Praeger, 1972.
O’Neal, Hank.A Vision Shared: A Classic Portrait of Amer-
ica and Its People, 1935–1943. New York: St. Martin’s
Press, 1976.
Pratt, Davis, ed.The Photographic Eye of Ben Shahn. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.
Rodman, Selden.Portrait of the Artist as an American: Ben
Shahn, A Biography with Pictures. New York: Harper &
Brothers, 1951.
Shahn, Ben.The Shape of Content. Cambridge, MA: Har-
vard University Press, 1957.
Weiss, Margaret R., ed.Ben Shahn, Photographer: An
Album from the Thirties. New York: Da Capo, 1973.
Wright, Richard.Twelve Million Black Voices: A Folk His-
tory of the Negro in the United States. New York: Viking,
1941.Ben Shahn, Untitled (Washington Square, New York City).
1932–1934, Gelatin silver print.
[Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art
Museums, Gift of Bernarda Bryson Shahn. Photographic
Services.#2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College;
Photo#Estate of Ben Shahn/Licensed by VAGA, New
York, New York]SHAHN, BEN