What exactly led Russell Lee to Cascade, Idaho’s Main Street, camera and color film in hand, in July of 1941? We know that, at the time, he was employed by the Farm Security Administration – the same program that employed Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Marion Post Wolcott, among others, to document rural America’s struggles during the Depression and the same program that eventually fed into the Office of War Information when the latter was created in June 1942. We can see from the Library of Congress’s online collection that Lee made the trip to Cascade because he believed that “Cascade is a microcosm of Idaho’s past and present – all the industries of the state, including lumbering, mining, agriculture, stock raising and tourist trade are apportioned to this town and its valley,” though he seems to have spent much of his time in Cascade photographing the lumber industry in particular. The only color photograph in the LOC’s collection from that trip was the one above, which we old car nuts can certainly appreciate.
Lee didn’t seem to have bothered noting the years, makes, and models of the four vehicles in his photo, however, so now, nearly 70 years later, can you help the historical record along by identifying them all? Bonus points if you can identify the cars in the other two Cascade street scenes Lee shot that day (1, 2).