AFA Autumn 2018

Autumn 126 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Francis Colburn (1909–1984), Social Security, 1947. Oil on canvas, 34 x 28 inches. Collection of Vermont Historical Society; Gift of Ruth P. Bogorad, Shelburne, Vt. Poverty among the elderly grew dramatically during the Great Depression. The best estimates are that in 1934 over half of the elderly in America lacked sufficient income to be self-supporting. On August 14, 1935, the Social Security Act established a system of benefits for retired workers and victims of industrial accidents, unemployment insurance, and aid for dependent mothers and children, the blind, and the physically handicapped. Social Security by Francis Colburn depicts an old woman surrounded by outdated Victorian furniture. The embodiment of a Vermont Social Security recipient, this image represents one of the New Deal’s most powerful legacies. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has recently noted, “It is hard for us to imagine what life was like for seniors and the disabled before Social Security.”  3 Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, was the first beneficiary in the nation of recurring monthly Social Security payments. Fuller lived alone most of her life. She filed her retirement claim on November 4, 1939, having worked under Social Security for a little short of three years. She received the first Social Security check, check number 00-000-001, dated January 31, 1940, in the amount of $22.54. By the time she died in 1975, at age 100, she had received a total of $22,888.92 in benefits. Near the end of her life, when she was living with a niece, she told a reporter that the payments, “come pretty near paying for my expenses.”  4