Background
Roy Emerson Stryker was born on November 5, 1893, in Great Bend, Kansas, United States.
economist government official Photographer
Roy Emerson Stryker was born on November 5, 1893, in Great Bend, Kansas, United States.
Roy Stryker graduated from Columbia University in New York City in 1924.
After serving in World War I, Roy Stryker finished his education at Columbia and stayed on as an economics teacher. From 1935 to 1943 he was chief of the historical section of the Farm Security Administration (FSA) and directed the photographers who documented America during the Depression. He later headed similar projects for the Office of War Information, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the University of Pittsburgh Photo Library, the Technical Cooperation Administration, and the Jones & Laughlin Steel Company. Later he worked as an independent consultant.
From 1950 to 1952, Roy Stryker worked to establish the Pittsburgh Photographic Library (PPL). Thereafter, he accepted consulting jobs on occasion and conducted seminars on photojournalism at the University of Missouri. Stryker eventually returned to the west in the 1960s.
Roy Stryker died in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Stryker’s work managing the FSA projects helped to establish the careers of many professional journalists. Overall, it is estimated 77,000 photographic prints were made for the press from 164,000 developed negatives, along with more than 600 color images. These photographs have since been added to the Library of Congress.
