Tree branches and leaves, a landscape, house, and the photographer taking the picture are reflected in the eyes of an Ellis County, Texas child in June 1937.

The photographer was Dorothea Lange, who, in this reflection, was likely looking down into the viewfinder of her Graflex large format camera.  The image below is from California in February, 1936.

The large format camera and her photographic talents enabled Lange to take stunning, high clarity images of her subjects, in this instance, the child of a former tenant farmer reduced to the status of a day laborer.

This photo was previously used for the post Eyes of the Great Depression 027.

The Bitter Years, Wall 2 (Drought and Erosion)
Eroded land on tenant’s farm. Walker County, Alabama.
February, 1937.
Arthur Rothstein 25121-D

The Bitter Years, in 1962, was Edward Steichen’s last exhibition as Director of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The images in the exhibition were personally selected by Steichen from 270,000 photos taken for the Farm Security Administration by a team of photographers employed between 1935 and 1941 to document (primarily) rural America during the Great Depression.

Image information:

• Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. Eroded land on tenant’s farm. Walker County, Alabama. Feb, 1937. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000006786/PP/. (Accessed September 19, 2016.)
• Call Number: LC-USF346- 025121-D [P&P]
• Part of: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection

A temporary Blast from the Past post after reediting due to lost images. Originally posted April 15, 2009.

President of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union at Hill House, Mississippi
1936 July.

Lange, Dorothea, photographer. President of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union at Hill House, Mississippi. July, 1936. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998021719/PP/. (Accessed September 28, 2016.)

Call Number: LC-USF34- 009598-C [P&P]

Part of: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection

While reviewing the Eyes of the Great Depression project, this images for this post were missing.  The post has been redone, with newly edited images.  MpG 9/28/2016

I sometimes use Google Street View to identify locations for photos that I – or others – have taken.  In this instance, I rotated a view on Teton Park Road in Grand Teton National Park from looking northwest to looking southeast… and discovered this UPS guy!

The Bitter Years, Wall 2 (Drought and Erosion)
Negro children and old home on badly eroded land near
Wadesboro, North Carolina.
December, 1938.
Marion Post Wolcott 50720E

The Bitter Years, in 1962, was Edward Steichen’s last exhibition as Director of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The images in the exhibition were personally selected by Steichen from 270,000 photos taken for the Farm Security Administration by a team of photographers employed between 1935 and 1941 to document (primarily) rural America during the Great Depression.

Image information:

• Wolcott, Marion Post, photographer. Negro children and old home on badly eroded land near Wadesboro, North Carolina. Dec, 1938. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa2000031123/PP/. (Accessed September 19, 2016.)
• Call Number: LC-USF347- 050720-E-A [P&P]
• Part of: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign #7

Old sign informing Hippies to use the backdoor at the Sundowner bar on Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas.

Used in video:

Exit78 photo series: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign (#7)

Image accessed on Pixabay, September 8, 2016; CC0 Public Domain; Free for commercial use; No attribution required

Art on Sunday #17

This work¹, from Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, was essentially created by hand painting over a photograph by Andrew J. Russell taken in the middle of the American Civil War.  The U.S. Library of Congress has a copy of the photograph² (below) without the artistic embellishments.

Description on back of image:

United States Military Railway Department.
Construction and Transportation

No. 21. Expedients for Crossing Streams. – No. 21 represents a pair of small pontoons, designed to facilitate scouting operations. They should be about 10 inches diameter, and 7 or 8 feet long. They can be carried by a strap around the waist, and concealed by an overcoat. A boat can be made of these by running poles through the loops, and then placing sticks across. They were originally designed for the use of surveying parties, but for scouting expeditions they may be of much value.

Source information:

1. Brigadier General Herman Haupt on a scout boat; http://brbl-dl.library.yale.edu/vufind/Record/3565624 Andrew J. Russell, photographer; painter unknown; Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
2. Gen’l H. Haupt; http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2006676150/ Andrew J. Russell, photographer; Library of Congress

The Bitter Years, Wall 2 (Drought and Erosion)
Dry and parched earth in the Bad Lands of South Dakota.
May 1936
Arthur Rothstein 4380D

The Bitter Years, in 1962, was Edward Steichen’s last exhibition as Director of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). The images in the exhibition were personally selected by Steichen from 270,000 photos taken for the Farm Security Administration by a team of photographers employed between 1935 and 1941 to document (primarily) rural America during the Great Depression.

Image Information:

• Rothstein, Arthur, photographer. Dry and parched earth in the badlands of South Dakota. May, 1936. Image. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998019157/PP/. (Accessed September 19, 2016.)
• Call Number: LC-USF34- 004380-D [P&P]
• Part of: Farm Security Administration – Office of War Information Photograph Collection

Along with their meager belongings, during the Depression years, displaced farmers and other agricultural workers brought with them their cultural heritage, including the ballads and other folksongs they performed and enjoyed.¹ Singing and making music took place both in private living areas and public spaces.  While the music performed by the migrants came from many sources, the majority of pieces belonged to the Anglo-Celtic ballad tradition, songs such as “Barbara Allen.”²

A traditional Scottish Ballad, “Barbara Allen” has been said to be “far and away the most widely collected song in the English language — equally popular in England, Scotland and Ireland, and with hundreds of versions collected over the years in North America.”³

The ballad generally follows a standard plot, although narrative details vary between versions. Barbara Allen visits the bedside of a heartbroken young man, who pleads for her love. She refuses, claiming that he had slighted her at a prior affair; he dies soon thereafter. Barbara Allen later hears his funeral bells tolling; stricken with grief, she dies as well.⁴

The earliest exiting reference to the song is a January 2nd, 1666 diary entry by Samuel Pepsys.  Recalling the fun and games of a New Years party, he also writes “…but above all, my dear Mrs Knipp whom I sang; and in perfect pleasure I was to hear her sing, and especially her little Scotch song of Barbary Allen.”⁵

Lyrics

Twas in the merry month of May
When green buds all were swelling,
Sweet William on his death bed lay
For love of Barbara Allen.

He sent his servant to the town
To the place where she was dwelling,
Saying you must come, to my master dear
If your name be Barbara Allen.

So slowly, slowly she got up
And slowly she drew nigh him,
And the only words to him did say
Young man I think you’re dying.

He turned his face unto the wall
And death was in him welling,
Good-bye, good-bye, to my friends all
Be good to Barbara Allen.

When he was dead and laid in grave
She heard the death bells knelling
And every stroke to her did say
Hard hearted Barbara Allen.

Oh mother, oh mother go dig my grave
Make it both long and narrow,
Sweet William died of love for me
And I will die of sorrow.

And father, oh father, go dig my grave
Make it both long and narrow,
Sweet William died on yesterday
And I will die tomorrow.

Barbara Allen was buried in the old churchyard
Sweet William was buried beside her,
Out of sweet William’s heart, there grew a rose
Out of Barbara Allen’s a briar.

They grew and grew in the old churchyard
Till they could grow no higher
At the end they formed, a true lover’s knot
And the rose grew round the briar.

References:

1. The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Collecting Expedition; (Accessed September 21, 2016.)
2. The Migrant Experience; (Accessed September 21, 2016.)
3. Roud, Steve & Julia Bishop (2012). The New Penguin Book of Folk Songs. Penguin. pp. 406–7. ISBN 978-0-141-19461-5. (Cited in Wikipedia – accessed September 21, 2016)
4. Wikipedia – (accessed September 21, 2016))
5. The Diary of Samuel Pepys – 1666, page 1, By Samuel Pepys, University of California Press, Sep 1, 2000 (accessed September 23, 2016)