Photographs of Bob Wyer

Delaware County Historical Association

1939 Milk Strike in Delaware County, People with State Police - Image Source

Collection Facts

Extent:

170

Dates of Original:

c. 1939 - 1954

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Historical Context

Bob Wyer started his photography career in the late 1930s when a local newspaper asked him to start taking photographs. He quickly discovered his love for photography and over the next 40 years took over 150,000 photographs. With his wife, Billie Wyer, his successful photo studio took many portraits and photographed a wide range of community activities, including parades, crime and accident scenes and the everyday minutiae of life in the Catskills.. In the 1960s, Mrs. Wyer founded Bob Wyer Poscards. The Wyer’s spent much of that decade traveling around the country photographing college campuses. The Wyers retired in 1978.

Scope of Collection

This is a collection of black and white photographs pertaining to two milk strikes in the Delaware County area of New York, the strikes of 1939 and 1940. The strikes took place as an effort to increase the money farmers were getting for their milk. The 1939 strike includes images of some of the confrontations between local farmers and milk transporters. The 1941 strike images include several of milk being dumped.