Monday, 6 September 2010

John Vachon: In the Heartland: Granary


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Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Grain elevators belonging to General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Oil tanks, Lincoln, Nebraska, October 1938

Image, Source: digital file from original neg.

Shops, Washington, D.C., December 1937

Image, Source: digital file from original neg.

Advertisement for bread, Washington, D.C., April 1937

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

New barn built by the FSA in northeast Kansas development project, October 1938

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Corn, Kansas, October 1938

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Bidding on futures, Minneapolis, Grain Exchange, September 1939

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/4/4b/20070421080233%21Flour_mills-railroad_cars-Minneapolis-1939.jpg

Flour mills and railroad cars, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Cornfield and farm, Hartford, Wisconsin, Fourth of July, 1941

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Leaning grain elevator, Grand Island, Nebraska, November 1938

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Sugar beets, Nebraska, October 1938

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Grain elevator, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Bidding on futures, Minneapolis, Grain Exchange, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Freight car loaded with sacks of flour, Pillsbury Mills, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Brewery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Grain elevator, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939


O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
Alone and palely loitering?
 The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing.

 O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel's granary is full,
And the harvest's done.

John Keats: La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad, 1819


Photos by John Vachon (Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress)

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous6 September 2010 at 07:08

    This collection and arrangement of images and forms, experienced in conjunction with the title of the post and the Keats excerpt, is incredibly moving and vividly recreates history that we shouldn't lose because it's still very relevant. It unfolds like a silent film I think I've seen in dreams. It really stirs one up and seems appropriate to Labor Day, a holiday we tend to enjoy but not think about a lot. John Vachon is an amazing photographer.

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  2. TC6 September 2010 at 09:22

    Thank you, Curtis. I could not agree more about John Vachon. As to the knight-at-arms, perhaps I sympathize with him overmuch. The barns are bulging somewhere, but unless a crew of voluntary Amish housebuilders shows up here in the next 24 hours, we may be eaten alive by contractors, and never heard from again. (This is not even to mention the medicos, who may well be getting the first bite.)

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