.
Hymn singing during evening services at city mission for homeless men. Dubuque, Iowa: photo by John Vachon, April 1940
a'bject. A man without hope; a man whose miseries are irretrievable.
But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together; yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not.
They did tear me, and ceased not. Psalms XXX, 15.
Johnson's Dictionary, 1755
Corner of dormitory, homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Man examining ankle, homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Man in homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Corner of dormitory, homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Dormitory, homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
General view of dormitory, homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Men reading in homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
A card game in the kitchen of homeless men's bureau (for unattached men), Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Meal time at the homeless men's bureau (for unattached men), Sioux City, Iowa: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Men's dormitory at night at the homeless men's bureau, Sioux City, Iowa (for unattached men). Unemployment is the primary cause of their being here. This unemployment has been the direct cause of broken homes, through divorce and incompatibility. Most of the men are willing to work if they could find it. Average age fifty-two. Most of the men are from the urban districts: photo by Russell Lee for U.S. Resettlement Administration, December 1936
Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress
Tom,
ReplyDeleteJohnson got it ("a'bject. A man without hope").
John Vachon got it too ("Most of the men are willing to work if they could find it. . . .").
10.24
light coming into fog against invisible
ridge, song sparrow calling from branch
in foreground, sound of wave in channel
that “toward” it, aspect of
object present except
space, this thing which one
knows, picture person
white cloud in blue of sky above ridge,
shadowed green pine on tip of sandspit
Steve,
ReplyDeleteThat caption, as well as all the photos below the top Vachon shot, are the work of Russell Lee.
Johnson's substantivizing of the adjective was and alas remains apt.
The song sparrow finds its work as it sings.
In those pictures, these homeless men are better dressed than most of those you see who own houses and work in offices these days.
ReplyDeleteThis feels so haunted. Very moving.
ReplyDeleteRay, those big overalls were issued by the bureau.
ReplyDeleteIt is to be noted be that in contradistinction to the practise of the dread urban "shelters" of the current Depression, the men in Sioux City were evidently not evicted in the daytime.
The climate in Sioux City in December (the month in which Russell Lee's photos were taken) is approximately that of Vladivostok.
An average daytime high of 31 degrees F, an average nighttime low of 12 degrees F.
Nin, I too found these pictures haunted -- and haunting --for sure.
The sepulchral dormitory scenes... curiously "contemporary" in feel.
Melvin Seeman, in an article On the Meaning of Alienation, from American Sociological Review, 1959, enumerated the "five aspects of alienation":
powerlessness
meaninglessness
normlessness
social isolation
self-estrangement
The town in which we live has become a magnet for the wandering homeless tribes of these desperate times. The population of homeless unattached adults, already high, went up 10% in the last year. In every patch of downtown night doorway and nook and cranny of unclaimed pavement, an anonymous living bundle. And as winter in America comes on...
Tom,
ReplyDeleteReally an essential difference...As you say, the homeless, in roving 'tribes' in San Francisco, I had the opportunity recently to walk amidst...what a difference from these pictures of the dormitory, a definite place to be...Thanks for the insight into what has been, something to work towards...Do you think it was the spirit of Rosevelt's programs that perhaps led people to think of the homeless as not simply cast out, placeless, no part of the order of things?
Bowie
Tom,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, and note about song sparrow's work.
Bowie,
ReplyDelete"...it was the spirit of Roosevelt's programs that perhaps led people to think of the homeless as not simply cast out, placeless, no part of the order of things?"
Yes, I do believe that during that administration care and attention and compassionate consideration were given, and extended down through the layers of society to reach even those at the very bottom, the dejected and rejected and dispossessed, for whom there is really no place in the scheme of things now.
the path winds round
ReplyDeletethen ends then finds a way
leaf stewn
A sharp indraw of breath when we discover where our paths have lead us. It's good to look back once in awhile to understand.
Yes, and... dizzying.
ReplyDeleteAmid the swirling litter of dead leaves now: smoke rising, crowd-dispersal, the scattered chants of the abandoned.