Pea pickers from Vermont - 6 weeks earnings $7.00 - at squatter's camp, Nipomo

The automobile was first invented and perfected in Germany and France in the late 1890s. Americans quickly came to dominate the automotive industry after WWI. Throughout this initial era, the development of automotive technology was rapid. Hundreds of small manufacturers competing to gain the world's attention. Key developments included the electric ignition system, independent suspension, and four-wheel brakes. Transmissions and throttle controls were widely adopted and safety glass also made its debut. Henry Ford perfected mass-production techniques, and Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler emerged as the “Big Three” auto companies by the 1920s. Car manufacturers received enormous orders from the military during World War II, and afterward automobile production in the United States, Europe, and Japan soared.

Cars of the 1920s.

Dorothea Lange was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist. She is best known for her work during the Great Depression when she captured powerful images of the hardships faced by many Americans. Lange studied photography at Columbia University in New York City under Clarence H. White, a member of the Photo-Secession group. In 1918 she decided to travel around the world, earning money as she went by selling her photographs. Lange's photographs helped to raise awareness of the difficulties faced by many people during this time, and they remain an important record of American history. She was a member of the Photo League, a group of photographers who sought to use their work to expose social and political issues. Lange died in 1965. Her portraits of displaced farmers during the Great Depression greatly influenced later documentary and journalistic photography.