Uploaded March 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago

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On a regular day in January 1942, at work for the Farm Security Administration in Washington, DC, Ella Watson was cleaning the offices of the building. As luck would have it, on that particular shift, she was approached by a photographer named Gordon Parks. With that chance encounter, the two would end up creating an iconic American photograph; Gordon Parks' "Washington, D.C. Government Charwoman (American Gothic)."

Learn more about Ella Watson and DC at The Gordon Parks Foundation: gordonparksfoundation.org/gordon-parks/photography-archive/washington-d-c-and-ella-watson-1942

See the photograph here: nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.170890.html