Friday, September 17, 2010

Mother Goose Is On Relief: Wisconsin, 1936-1939


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Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Abandoned farm and snow fence, Wisconsin: photo by John Vachon, September 1939


The land of four o'clocks is here

the five of us together
 
......looking for our supper.

Half past endive, quarter to beets,

seven milks, ten cents cheese,
 
......lost, our land, forever.


Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Baby of Daisy Heath, near Black River Falls, Wisconsin. Mrs. Heath lives alone on two acres of land: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Alonzo Heath with two of his children. He is a farmer near Black River Falls, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Barn on Alonzo Heath's cut-over farm near Black River Falls, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Backporch of Henry McPeak's house, Black River Falls, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Art Simplot and his family in front of their house near Black River Falls, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Art Simplot's children, near Black River Falls, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Art Simplot's sons in the kitchen and washroom of their house near Black River Falls, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Art Simplot's youngest child in her home at Black River Falls, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Abandoned farm buildings near New Lisbon, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Abandoned farm buildings near New Lisbon, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, June 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Barn on the Bodray farm, Tipler, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, May 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Abandoned farm on the road from Tipler to Long Lake, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, May 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Bed in William Howell's home near Tipler, Wisconsin. He is a cut-over farmer on relief: photo by Russell Lee, May 1937

Image, Source: intermediary roll film

Attic bedroom in Max Sparks's house near Long Lake, Wisconsin: photo by Russell Lee, May 1937

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Barn with roof in need of repair, Chippewa County, Wisconsin: photo by John Vachon, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Abandoned farmhouse, Chippewa County, Wisconsin: photo by John Vachon, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Abandoned farmhouse, Chippewa County, Wisconsin: photo by John Vachon, September 1939

Image, Source: digital file from intermediary roll film

Abandoned automobile on farm, Chippewa County, Wisconsin: photo by John Vachon, September 1939


Lorine Niedecker: "The land of four o'clocks is here" from Mother Geese in New Directions 1, 1936

John Vachon came from St. Paul, Minnesota. Russell Lee came from Ottawa, Illinois. Lorine Niedecker came from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. In the late 1930s Vachon and Lee went to work for the Farm Security Administration, Niedecker for the Federal Writers Project.

Photos from Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Collection, Library of Congress