Scope and Content Note
The papers of Arthur Rothstein (1915-1985) span the years 1936-2000, with the bulk of the material dating from 1952 to 1985. The collection includes correspondence, speeches and writings, and subject files. The focus of the papers is Rothstein’s fifty-year career as a photographer and his work as a teacher and writer on the subject of photography.
The speeches and writings section contains Rothstein’s articles and essays on photography and accounts of his work as a photographer for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) from 1935 to 1940. Also included are lectures which Rothstein delivered to photojournalism classes and photography workshops and at exhibits of his photographs.
Subject files feature material relating to Rothstein’s work at Look and P arade magazines and the exhibition, sale, and reproduction of his photographs. A common topic in the subject files is the photography of the Farm Security Administration which documented rural and small town America from 1935 until the early 1940s. A transcript of a 1952 conversation between Roy Emerson Stryker, the director of the project, and FSA photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, and John Vachon, regarding their work is located in the Farm Security Administration subject file.