These photos are part of a Library of Congress project to digitize and upload a trove of pictures that were taken by photographers hired by the Farm Security Administration for a Depression-era New Deal program.
Stunning full-color photos offer a rare glimpse into the lives of children in early 1940s America -- a seldom-discussed time when the nation was waking up from the Great Depression and readying itself for war.
Children were caught in the extremes of a nation in the midst of a great transformation. Abject poverty in rural areas and tenements meant many youngsters were forced to work the fields and factories to help their parents scrape together a living.
(Images: Library of Congress, via Daily Mail Online)