Accession Number
2014/2.329

Title
Debris Piled by Side of Road After Flood, Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA

Artist(s)
Leonard Freed

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1972

Medium & Support
vintage gelatin silver print on paper

Dimensions
8 x 10 in. ( 20.32 x 25.4 cm )

Credit Line
Gift of Thomas Wilson '79 and Jill Garling '80

Subject matter
This photograph depicts a view down onto a residential street lined with piles of wreckage in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Local residents converse across a debris-filled front yard in the lower foreground; they are rendered minuscule by the photographer's second-story vantage point. Though it made landfall as a tropical storm, former Hurricane Agnes became one of the most devastating natural disasters in modern U.S. history due to the floods and tornadoes it caused across much of the eastern seaboard. Wilkes-Barre was particularly affected and had to be evacuated when the Susquehanna River crested its banks, resulting in 128 deaths and billions of dollars in damage. Freed, known for images of the Civil Rights Movement, here photographs residents who have returned to the city after the storm has subsided. Freed focuses on not only the flood's devastation but also its effects on the community and on individuals. 

Physical Description
A man standing in the middle of a street that had been flooded. There are piles of debris in front of the houses.

Primary Object Classification
Photograph

Primary Object Type
black and white print

Collection Area
Photography

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
floods (natural events)
houses
neighborhoods
porches
rubble
streets
telephone poles
yards (open spaces)