Boy sitting on a bed in the oil boom town of Freer
date: label: Date made
content: 1937
name: label: photographer
content: Mydans, Carl
notes: label: Description
content: During one of his first assignments for <i>LIFE</i> magazine, Mydans was asked to capture images of life in Texas. His main focus was the oil boom town of Freer (Jan 17 1938).
label: Description
content: The town received its name in 1925, when the government granted permission to have a post office built. Six families had established homesteads there only a decade earlier. By the mid-thirties, the population of Freer was estimated to be somewhere between five and eight thousand.
label: Description
content: The first oil boom occurred in 1928, but the Great Depression and the discovery of oil in East Texas in 1930 put an end to it. During the spring of 1932, a second, even bigger, boom occurred. By 1933, Freer had become the second-largest oilfield in the United States and had attracted a flood of settlers from Oklahoma, Kansas, and other midwestern states. According to <i>LIFE</i>, most of the settlers were <i>parasites</i>, people who brought trouble, with them rather than productivity. This child, however, presents a contrast to this idea.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Texas, Freer
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Photographic History
label: See more items in
content: Photography
label: See more items in
content: Carl Mydans
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Mydans, Carl. Carl Mydans, Photojournalist
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0228.035
label: accession number
content: 2005.0228
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0228.035
objectType: label: Object Name
content: photograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 34 cm x 26.5 cm; 13 3/8 in x 10 7/16 in