School Children Singing, Pie Town, New Mexico, Russell Lee

Artwork Overview

School Children Singing, Pie Town, New Mexico, Russell Lee
School Children Singing, Pie Town, New Mexico, Russell Lee
Russell Lee
School Children Singing, Pie Town, New Mexico
1940
Russell Lee, artist
1903–1986
School Children Singing, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: dye transfer print
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 16.6 x 25.2 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 6 9/16 x 9 15/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund
Accession number: 1985.0104
On display: Brosseau Learning Center
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Label texts

Brosseau Center for Learning: In Conversation with the 2025–26 KU Common Book

Clothing is considered one of the necessities of life. Not only does it provide crucial protection from the elements, it also allows people to present themselves in ways that they desire. How have people coped when there was a lack of resources for clothing? Russell Lee’s photograph of children offers one example.

Lee was a government photographer hired by the Farm Security Administration (FSA), which carried out a project to document life in rural America from 1935 to 1943. As part of this mission, Lee took photographs in Pie Town, New Mexico. While the word “pie,” recalling a scrumptious taste and sweet aroma, conjures up a place where conditions are favorable, this was not the case when Lee visited Pie Town in 1940. The town was home to approximately two hundred families, most of whom migrated from other parts of America. Although they moved for various reasons, including the severe dust storms caused by drought, Pie Town was also subject to an array of challenges, such as poverty resulting from the Great Depression (1929–1939).

Nonetheless, Lee’s photographs shed light on how the town’s residents remained persistent and resourceful. The girls’ clothes in this photograph make a case in point. It is likely that their dresses, including the one worn by the girl on the far left, are made of so-called feed sack cotton. This material was originally used as containers for goods like dry feed, grains, and fertilizer. Faced with economic hardships, women at the time saw great potential in these textiles and often reused them to create clothing for their families.

The colorful patterns of the clothes demonstrate how the repurposed cotton provided aesthetic value in addition to necessary protection. At the same time, it was intertwined with the capitalist pursuits of the period, as corporations introduced an array of designs to propel sales by appealing to those in need. Feed sack dresses in this work are not simply the epitome of self-sustenance and resilience. Rather, their multifaceted nature invites our critical consideration of the era.

Arial Kim gives feed sack cotton four stars.

Exhibitions

Edge of the Dream: Photographs of the Depression
Jan Marsh, curator
1991
Teaching Gallery: Depression Era: Prints & Photos from 1929-1941
2007
Documenting the American Dream: Farm Security Administration Photographs of the Great Depression
1992
The American Scene: Graphics of the 1930s and 1940s
Elizabeth Wright, curator
1985
Brosseau Center for Learning: In Conversation with the 2025–26 KU Common Book
Scott Barber, curator
Wyatt Haywood, curator
Suzanne Huffman, curator
Ellen Joo, curator
Luke Jordan, curator
Arial Kim, curator
Doug Bergstrom, curator
Susan Earle, curator
Sofía Galarza Liu, curator
Kevin Liu, curator
Kate Meyer, curator
Cara Nordengren, curator
Hana Rose North, curator
Liz Pfeiffer, curator
Sydney Pursel, curator
Rachel Straughn-Navarro, curator
Eli Troen, curator
Maggie Vaughn, curator