Rush Hour on Second Avenue, July 1942

Photograph taken by Arthur S. Siegel, a member of a team of photographers who documented American life from 1935 to 1944 for various government agencies, including the U.S. Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information. This photograph, like others in the FSA-OWI collection, is held by the Library of Congress. According to a biography written by the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Photograph, Arthur Siegel was born in Detroit and attended the University of Michigan and Wayne State University. He was a professor or photography at Wayne State and eventually at the Illinois Institute of Design in Chicago.

This photograph, taken from the Fisher Building facing south towards downtown, shows 5:30pm traffic on Second Avenue. The General Motors Building, now called Cadillac Place, can be seen on the left.