John Vachon: In the Heartland: Granary

.

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

Oil tanks, Lincoln, Nebraska, October 1938

Shops, Washington, D.C., December 1937

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

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

Corn, Kansas, October 1938

Bidding on futures, Minneapolis, Grain Exchange, September 1939

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

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

Leaning grain elevator, Grand Island, Nebraska, November 1938

Sugar beets, Nebraska, October 1938

Grain elevator, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

Bidding on futures, Minneapolis, Grain Exchange, September 1939

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

Brewery, Minneapolis, Minnesota, September 1939

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)