Marion Post Wolcott (1910–1990)

Marion Post was born on June 7, 1910 in Mont Claire, NJ. She was the second daughter of Mrs. And Doctor Post. In hew teen year her parents divorced and she and her sister were sent off to boarding school. It was at this time she developed a special relationship with her maid and housekeeper and a great empathy for the blacks that is so evident in her FSA photographs. On many of her vacations, she spent time with her mother, who was quite progressive for a woman of the time, as she set up birth control centers. It was in the village with her mother that she was introduced to dance and music. In 1932 Marion went to Paris to study dance. She then went to Vienna where her sister was studying and met Trude Fleishman who, after seeing her photographs, suggested she pursue photography. When she returned to New York, she joined and became active in the Camera Club. It was there she became friends with Ralph Steiner and Paul Strand. Steiner sent her portfolio to Roy Stryker who hired her for the Farm Security Administration from 1938-1941. In 1941 Marion married Lee Wolcott, the assistant to the Secretary of Agriculture. It was then she gave up photography to raise her family although she remained artistically active.

Snowy night Woodstock, Vermont 1940 | 8.5x8 photo | 113.14.07

Farmers exchanging news and greetings in front of post office in Linwood, Kentucky 1940 | 8x8 photo | 215.15.03        

Hog killing time near Frederick, Maryland 1940 | 8x8 photo | 411.16.09