Alabama Photo: A Barn in 1935 by Walker Evans

 Walker Evans is one of the most famous American documentary photographers of the 20th century. He made at least two trips to Alabama during the Great Depression as he traveled through America taking photographs. This barn photo was taken in December 1935. His best known visit to the state came in the summer of 1936 when he and writer James Agee travelled from New York to Hale County to document the lives of sharecropping families. That effort eventually resulted in one of the best-known books ever written about Alabama, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. During that summer the two men visited other parts of the state as well. 

I've written several blog posts about Evans' Alabama photos of a cemetery, two stores, and an advertisement for J.C. Lincoln's Sunny South Minstrels. I've also discussed his shots of the abandoned town of Advance and some of his 1936 photos in Birmingham. 

The photo below features cigarette and tobacco ads on the side of the barn. Such advertising on barns was common in the Midwest and Southern United States in the first half of the 20th century. The exact location of the barn in the state is unknown. See below for discussion of these specific ads. 

Source: Farm Security Administration Photo Collection

Library of Congress

"Prince Albert" is a cigarette and pipe tobacco marketed by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company since 1907. R.J. Reynolds himself named the product after the future King of the United Kingdom, Edward VII. The tins in which the tobacco was sold are now highly prized vintage items and can be seen on the right in this ad. The containers are also the subject of a long-running joke, "Do you have Prince Albert in a can?" The Wikipedia entry linked at the beginning of this paragraph explains. 

A Phillip Morris ad appears twice on this barn. The company has produced many brands over the years including Marlboro and the one here named after the firm. Both ads feature "Johnny the Bellboy", a campaign that lasted more than 40 years. The individual was an actual person, Johnny Roventini, a midget and actor who had actually worked as a bellboy. Phillip Morris sponsored the I Love Lucy TV show for several years, and Roventini figured prominently in the advertising there. 

I'm not sure if the woman in the Camel ad was a real person, although to me she looks a bit like actress Dorothy Lamour. In the 1930s Camel was the first cigarette brand to show women smoking in its advertisements.