Russell Lee’s caption of his photograph emphasizes that this elderly woman is part of a family benefitting from the FSA’s intervention. As a tenant purchase client, this family was on the path to becoming self-sufficient, owning their own farm rather than dependent on tenant farming. The log cabin block in her lap suggests the pioneering spirit of those that moved west in search of land and prosperity.

Title: 
Mother of tenant purchase client piecing a quilt
Maker: 
Russell Lee
Maricopa County, Arizona, 1940
Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress