ALFRED EISENSTAEDT, Harvesters hitchhiking to a wheat harvesting where they make $5 a day and earn room and board, OK, c. 1942, 7.625x9.5" Gelatin silver print, Printed c. 1942, Inscribed in pencil on print verso: "Wheaties" $5 a day - room + board / Harvesters hitch-hiking to wheat harvesting; Oklahoma Essay stamp; PIX Incorporated credit stamp; Time Inc. copyright stamp.

In 1942 Eisenstaedt went to Oklahoma to photograph the Okies. LIFE text and other pictures from this series include the text: "But just as entire families in Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska and other states abandoned their homes in search of a new start, countless other farmers held their own, suffering through the very worst of the Dust Bowl years, battling for every ear of corn, every grain of wheat, every leaf of lettuce on farms they had worked, in some cases, for generations."

Here, LIFE.com offers a series of revealing photos by the great Alfred Eisenstaedt. These pictures don't follow "Okies" as they leave their world behind. Instead, Eisenstaedt's photos chronicle the hardscrabble existence of Oklahoma farmers who stayed: families who fought to keep their livelihoods and their homesteads during those lean, unforgiving years after the Dust Bowl according to the history books, at least came to an end.

Credit: https://www.life.com/history/true-grit-dust-bowl-survivors/"

Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995), one of the most famous photographers of the 20th century, began taking pictures at the age of 14 when he was given his first camera, an Eastman Kodak Folding Camera with roll film. In 1927 Eisenstaedt sold his first photograph and began his freelance career for Pacific and Atlantic Photos Agency in Berlin, which was taken over by Associated Press in 1931. Using cumbersome equipment with tripods and glass plate negatives, Eisenstaedt produced many photos on assignment of musicians, writers, and royalty. One of his more famous photographs from the early 1930s depicts a waiter at the ice rink of the Grand Hotel. Another reveals the opera house La Scala, Milan. By 1935 Eisenstaedt had acquired a Rolleiflex camera and immigrated to America. A year later he became one of the original staff photographers for LIFE Magazine. At that point he was considered one of the masters of the candid photograph. VJ Day in Times Square on August 15, 1945 provided the opportunity for Eisenstaedt to photograph the image for which he is most famous.

Eisenstaedt had his first one-man exhibition in 1954 at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. He had many subsequent exhibits and was the recipient of numerous awards, among them the National Medal of the Arts, which he received from President George Bush in 1989 in a ceremony on the White House lawn.

Credit: http://www.howardgreenberg.com/artists/alfred-eisenstaedt

Very good. Minor edge wear, surface smudges, corner crease.