They are the images usually only seen in black and white - a fitting hue for the gloom of a 1940s America engaged in World War II and experiencing the Great Depression.
But these vivid photographs in glorious colour show better than ever what life on the United States home front was really like as war raged in Europe.
From a Californian female aircraft worker focused on checking electrical wiring, to children rolling potatoes into a barrel on a farmyard in Maine - the pictures illustrate the significant role of those not on the battle fields.
Photographers working for the United States Farm Security Administration (FSA) and later the Office of War Information (OWI) created the images between 1939 and 1944.
They depict life in the United States, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, with a focus on rural areas and farm labour, as well as the tremendous World War II mobilisation effort across factories, railroads, and aviation training.
In crystal clarity viewers can appreciate the might of America's industrial power, and how a whole nation, including housewives and even children, were put to work to win the war.
The pictures show the car factories which almost overnight were turned into munitions productions and the farms which churned out the produce to keep America fed.
Some 1,600 have been stored away for years as their monochrome counterparts were made public and became better known.
But now the Library of Congress is sharing the photographs on Flickr, and is encouraging members to add comments, notes, and tags to help identify their exact subject matter.
The original images are colour transparencies ranging in size from 35mm to 4.5 inches.
Flickr users were unanimous in their praise. 'I have never been able to truly envision this era in color, and now I CAN,' one wrote. 'I cannot tell you how amazing and insightful this is to me!'
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