LIFE Magazine and Greenbelt
The Greenbelt community, established in 1937, was beginning and growing at
the
same time as LIFE magazine. I wondered if the people in Greenbelt
purchased or subscribed to the magazine because
many were not highly educated or very wealthy.
I contacted Ann Neville, a woman in Texas who lived in Greenbelt as a
child and she remembered seeing LIFE magazine and others in her home
although she was too young to read them.
"We got both Life and Look (and
Reader's Digest)
by subscription. During the time period your course is studying, I was
pre-literate (born in 1941), so I only looked at the pictures. I "read"
Look backwards, because the cartoons were in the back half or back two
thirds of the magazine, and if I started at the front I had to turn a lot
of pages before I got to the first cartoon. I liked the cartoons because
I liked to draw, and cartoons showed me ways to draw feet, and fingers,
and other hard stuff."
email correspondence December 1, 1997
I would think that since she remembers three subscriptions in the
house
when she was a child, they were very popular but probably not considered
very expensive.
In the Greenbelt Museum, a picture of Franklin D. Roosevelt hangs on the
wall of the main room. During the post depression times, pictures of the
president were
often used as wall hangings by those who supported him. In those times
Roosevelt's picture was in many more
places than on the wall of a living room. He was often featured in LIFE
magazine and on two occasions he was on th cover. The popularity of the
President and the publics' interest in his affairs undoubtedly made these
magazines hot items.
Jan. 4, 1937 - "President Roosevelt" by Harris Ewing
Nov. 18. 1940 - "Roosevelt Wins Third Term" by Otto Hagel
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