bill of pains and penalties

I've been reading Macaulay's History of England from the Accession of James II.

Approaching the end of its twenty five hundred pages I'm beginning to suffer withdrawal symptoms. It's no help that the last volume is both posthumous and incomplete. My affection for this work comes late. I enjoyed the bits of Macaulay I read when too young to know better, but the history professors of my college years had no trouble convincing me that the man and his writings were both uncool. I learned that he wrote an unacceptable version of popular history: presentist, triumphalist, progressivist, and fundamentally flawed by biases, prejudices, and, summing it all, whiggish.

There's some truth in these accusations, but, as Macaulay himself said, any history that possesses significance — that is not a meaningless assemblage of facts — is biased, though not necessarily in a bad way, and history that lacks narrative drive — with all the potential for whiggishness which that entails — will not find readers.[1] Each generation has its favorite approach to history and the historians we treasure are those we can read with pleasure long after successive generations of critics are done with them. For me, somewhat late in life, Macaulay is one such.

I've lifted some paragraphs from two early chapters the final volume to show some of the things I like about his work.[2] Their subject is an attempt to use legislation, a Bill of Pains and Penalties, to punish a wealthy and well-connected Londoner who had accused a prominent politician of corruption and who in turn had been accused of the same. The attempt is not an event that gets discussed in other histories and its obscurity is typical of Macaulay: he made a habit of deploying colorful snippets to reinforce the broad conclusions he wished to make.

He uses this one to let us see the potential of political infighting and politicians' opportunism to cause lasting harm. He also, by the way, shows that the whiggishness of which he's often accused hasn't led him to paper over cases of venality by actual Whigs. It's the Whig majority in Commons which comes close to perverting the constitution for petty and self-serving purposes and the aristocratical Lords who prevent it from doing so. The piece also thus shows a respect for the unelected Upper House by a man whose work is supposed to (somewhat crassly) celebrate the measured and inevitable evolution of representative democracy.

This is not to say that Macaulay's history was free of whiggism. Far from it. He set out to show how came to be the things of which a British subject of his time could boast — the wealth and power of his country, the liberties of its subjects and the strength of its political, religious, and economic institutions.[3] The gradual advances which led to this state of affairs were not to him inevitable nor achieved without great drama. His history is full of contingency and the clash of opposing personalities, none untainted by disabling and sometimes tragic flaws.

He believed history had no meaning unless it told a story and he tells this story compellingly and with typical verve, but he does not pretend that the end result could have been foretold or that it was in any way intentionally produced. The motivation of individual leaders, their strengths of character and moral flaws are as interesting to Macaulay, and thus to the reader, as are the decisions they make, whether for good or, as often or more so, for ill.

Charles Duncombe, the man who's the subject of the Bill of Pains was well known in his time for his wealth and position, his humble origin and impolite diction, and his willingness to spend money — both charitably and as bribes — in order to curry favor with electors and influential leaders. He has not attracted the notice of historians. His life is little known and he is not infrequently confused with other Duncombes, particularly his cousin who worked in the Exchequer.[4]

Like many, I should say most, of the characters Macaulay puts on display Charles Duncombe was greedy, self-serving, and corrupt. He stands out, however, as the only miscreant who confesses to his misdeeds. I believe the extracts I quote below give enough of the story to convey its interest to us and its importance to Macaulay as an instance of constitutional myopia.

In the extracts the "persecuted minister" is Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax. The "bill against Fenwick" refers to the bill of attainder against the Jacobite traitor ,Sir John Fenwick, 3rd Baronet, which resulted in his beheading in 1697. Fairfax and Buckingham are well known historical figures. Rochester, Nottingham, Leeds, and other persons mentioned were peers and political leaders of the time.



The extracts bring out some of Macaulay's skill of composition. He seizes on dramatic confrontation, exults in paradox, and takes obvious pleasure in exposing the meanness of politicians. He wrote slowly, corrected much, and retained a vast memory store of facts which he checked and double-checked. Yet his writing has an immediacy and displays an almost poetic feel for pace and rhythm.

You can take a paragraph almost at random to illustrate the vigor and charm of his writing style. This passage comes in a section on the ill-fated Darien scheme of the late 1690s. It concerns the survivors of a botched attempt to establish a Scottish colony on the Isthmus of Panama. After most of the colonists succumbed to Yellow Fever or other endemic diseases a relatively small number managed to escape to New York. Macaulay writes[5]:

The voyage was horrible. Scarcely any Guinea slave ship has ever had such a middle passage. Of two hundred and fifty persons who were on board of the Saint Andrew, one hundred and fifty fed the sharks of the Atlantic before Sandy Hook was in sight. The Unicorn lost almost all its officers, and about a hundred and forty men. The Caledonia, the healthiest ship of the three, threw overboard a hundred corpses. The squalid survivors, as if they were not sufficiently miserable, raged fiercely against one another. Charges of incapacity, cruelty, brutal insolence, were hurled backward and forward. The rigid Presbyterians attributed the calamities of the colony to the wickedness of Jacobites, Prelatists, Sabbath-breakers, Atheists, who hated in others that image of God which was wanting in themselves. The accused malignants, on the other hand, complained bitterly of the impertinence of meddling fanatics and hypocrites.

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Some sources:

The history of England from the accession of James II. Thomas Babington Macaulay, (Philadelphia, Porter & Coates, 1888)

Thomas Babington Macaulay on nndb (Notable Names Database)

The History of England from the Accession of James the Second on wikipedia

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
on wikipedia

Introduction to Selections from the prose of Macaulay by Lucius Hudson Holt (Ginn and company, 1916)
Extract:

Macaulay was not only clear, but uniformly interesting. He was, in the first place, a natural-born story-teller, gifted with marvelous facility in the selection of the strikingly important facts in his narrative, and with the touch of genius in the selection of the phrases in which he presented these facts. And in the second place, he was a most careful artist in his writing, using all the devices of antithesis, balanced sentences, abrupt transitions, and climax to relieve the possible monotony of his prose. In a study of the English paragraph, Edwin H. Lewis writes: "The popular impression that Macaulay is the best of paragraphers is probably not far from the truth. ... He knows his principal point, and it is on this that he enlarges. ... He reveals very great variability in sentence-length, and drives home his main topic and his main conclusion in simple sentences. When he masses clauses it is to relieve each of emphasis and show the unity of the group as amplifying some previous terse generalization."

About Macaulay's Style, The Construction of His Sentences; How the Great Essayist Used the English Language — Some of His Homely Phrases by R.G.H. [i.e. Richard Grant White] (New York Times, August 17, 1879)
Note: The writer uses a stilted, overly-formal, and ungainly style in praising Macaulay's "simple, clear and impressive style." See the text of this article here.

Richard Grant White on wikipedia

Richard Grant White by Arnold Zwicky on Language Log

Whig history in wikipedia

Whig History Is Back by Michael Knox Beran on the GMU History News Network

"On History" by Thomas Babington Macaulay in Selections from the Edinburgh review, comprising the best articles in that journal, from its commencement to the present time. With a preliminary dissertation, and explanatory notes, edited by Maurice Cross (Baudry's European Library, 1835)

The Whig Interpretation of History by Herbert Butterfield (London, G. Bell and Sons, 1931)

A history of crime in England by Luke Owen Pike (Smith, Elder & co., 1876)

Studies in Administration and Finance 1558-1825 by Edward Hughes (Manchester University Press, 1934)

DUNCOMBE, Charles (1648-1711), of Lombard Street, London and Teddington, Mdx. on historyofparliamentonline

Duncombe, Charles in Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 16, on wikisource

Charles Duncombe (English banker) in wikipedia

John Duncombe in wikipedia

DUNCOMBE, Charles (1764-1841), of Duncombe Park, Helmsley, Yorks. in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820-1832, ed. D.R. Fisher (Cambridge University Press, 2009)

A handbook of London bankers: with some account of their predecessors the early goldsmiths ; together with lists of bankers from 1670 (Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1890)

April 17 The Death of the Duke of Buckingham by Alexander Pope (on Bartleby.com)

IN the worst inn’s room, with mat half-hung,
The floors of plaster, and the walls of dung,
On once a flock-bed, but repaired with straw,
With tape-tied curtains never meant to draw,
The George and Garter dangling from that bed
Where tawdry yellow strove with dirty red,
Great Villiers lies—alas! how changed from him,
That life of pleasure, and that soul of whim!
Gallant and gay, in Cliveden’s proud alcove,
The bower of wanton Shrewsbury and love;
Or just as gay at council, in a ring
Of mimic statesmen and their merry King,
No wit to flatter left of all his store!
No fool to laugh at, which he valued more.
There, victor of his health, of fortune, friends,
And fame, this lord of useless thousands ends.

Bill of attainder in wikipedia

The ROADS Family of Buckinghamshire, and 'One-Place-Studies' of Waddesdon, Grendon Underwood and Wotton Underwood on Charles Duncombe

"Defoe's True-Born Englishman" by A.C. Guthkelch in Essays and Studies by members of the English Association, Vol IV, collected by C.H. Herford (J. Murray, 1913)
This extract is from the first edition of the poem in which Duncombe is clearly identified. Subsequent editions treated the subject as a generalized grasping City banker.


Company of Scotland on wikipedia

Darien scheme on wikipedia

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Notes:

[1] On his attitude toward history and historians, see "On History" by Thomas Babington Macaulay in Selections from the Edinburgh review, comprising the best articles in that journal, from its commencement to the present time. With a preliminary dissertation, and explanatory notes, edited by Maurice Cross (Baudry's European Library, 1835)

[2] The paragraphs I've lifted come from Chapters XXI and XXIII.

[3] This is the first paragraph of the first chapter of the History:

I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living. I shall recount the errors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and the title of the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the new settlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defended against foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement, the authority of law and the security of property were found to be compatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual action never before known; how, from the auspicious union of order and freedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; how our country, from a state of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of umpire among European powers; how her opulence and her martial glory grew together; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which to the statesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks into insignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissoluble ties of interest and affection; how, in America, the British colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than the realms which Cortes and Pizarro had added to the dominions of Charles the Fifth; how in Asia, British adventurers founded an empire not less splendid and more durable than that of Alexander.

[4] There are two good treatments of Duncombe's life and the parliamentary bill against him. The first is DUNCOMBE, Charles (1764-1841), of Duncombe Park, Helmsley, Yorks. in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820-1832, ed. D.R. Fisher (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and the second is by a person named Heather: The ROADS Family of Buckinghamshire, and 'One-Place-Studies' of Waddesdon, Grendon Underwood and Wotton Underwood on rootsweb

[5] From the wikipedia article, Darien scheme:

The colonization project that became known as the Darien Scheme or Darien Disaster[1] was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to become a world trading nation by establishing a colony called 'Caledonia' on the Isthmus of Panama in the late 1690s. From the outset, the undertaking was beset by poor planning and provision, weak leadership, lack of demand for trade goods, devastating epidemics of disease and increasing shortage of food; it was finally abandoned after a siege by Spanish forces in April, 1700. As the Darien company was backed by about a quarter of the money circulating in Scotland, its failure left the nobles and landowners – who had suffered a run of bad harvests – almost completely ruined and was an important factor in weakening their resistance to the Act of Union (finally consummated in 1707).

[8] The extract comes from Chapter XXIV of the History.

Potato race

These boys were spectators at a potato barrel rolling contest held October 1940 in Presque Isle, Maine. Jack Delano attended the event to photograph it for the Farm Security Administration.



I'd guess that Delano attracted the attention of the boys before he took their picture. As these two details show, they seem happy to be photographed as much as they're happy to have climbed to an ideal viewing spot.



In one of his first assignments for FSA Delano had used his camera to document laborers and laboring communities along the U.S. east coast. Starting in Florida, he'd worked his way to the nation's north-east estremity — Aroostook County along the border with Canada. All his photos in this set come from the FSA/OWI Color Photograph collection in the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. As usual, click to enlarge.

Although this set of photos shows us the contest itself, Delano seems more interested in the people who turned out to watch it.






In the following photo, the boy who's looking at the camera would probably have been happier mingling with the kids on the roof of Chesley's Electric Service.


The next photo seems to have a post-modern sensibility. It's not about the event or even about watching the event. It seems to some degree to be an abstract display of contrasting tones and textures and an exercise in handling negative space (the light colored areas, particularly among ankles and feet) but basically I suspect he wanted to see whether a photo of people's backsides would succeed, could be at all visually satisfying.

On the other hand it might have been a kind of inside joke. In an interview some 25 years later Delano said his boss would give detailed instructions before sending photographers out on assignment. He'd give them books to read and give them things to look out for, like "there is a certain drugstore on such and such a corner which has a certain thing in the window which you must be sure to find" and even "what kind of shoes" the people wear. He'd expect Delano to absorb all this information but he also expected him to be observant and to make his own judgment about what to shoot and how.*


The caption of this one says these girls are high school students who are participating by holding spuds on the ends of sticks. At left you can see a barrel sculpture, the "pototem pole."


The caption says the string that the Boy Scout is holding is the finishing line for the barrel race.


Here Delano shows the contest itself. Notice the news photographer on the back of the pickup truck and, just in front of him, the barrel with its potatoes. The caption says a full barrel weighs 200 pounds.


Detail from the previous image:


In this shot you can see more of the spectators and their reactions.


Detail from the previous image:


Here are two more photos from the many Delano took that day. The first is a poster advertising the contest and the second shows a champion roller. The caption says the latter shows "James Day, ace barrel roller and idol of Aroostook boys."


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*
Here's the relevant section of the interview:

[Interviewer:] We get these stories about how Roy would give you all sorts of books to read, and give you personal lectures and shooting scripts, and all that sort of thing. How much of that is correct?


JACK DELANO: Well, that's basically correct. I think that's quite true. Roy gave you the feeling that he knew more about everything that you did and, above all, ha knew more about America that you did, by far. And that's one of the things that I loved about Roy and one of the things I got most from him was a feeling about the United States, about America. This enthusiasm and love for the detail and the deeper meaning of everything American was something that he must have transmitted to everybody. He certainly did to me. In preparing for an assignment he not only gave us books to read, and all kinds of other things, but would talk and talk and talk in great detail about what you will find up there, and what you must look for, and there is a certain drugstore on such and such a corner which has a certain thing in the window which you must be sure to find, and so on. And he almost always would end up in saying, "But, of course, if you don't find any of these things, you do what you want to anyway." This is the way it always ended and frequently, after lengthy and detailed instructions and shooting scripts that Roy would develop, if you got up there and found that there was something else that interested you, and something else that you felt was more important and more pertinent, you just went ahead and did it; and wrote to Roy and said, "Look, Roy, it isn't like you said." This was perfectly okay with him because he wasn't imposing his ideas on you; he was trying to get you stimulated enough so that you would find out what was really there.

Interviewer: There was no dictation, I mean in this whole business he was simply trying to get you started. He didn't care if you went off on your own and took a different slant?

JACK DELANO: Not at all. On the contrary, he was trying to stimulate you to do that. In some of his letters, which we will show you -- I'm sure we'll find them this afternoon -- he would write in longhand these long letters in which he would work out for you a complete shooting script on what you should be looking for in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania or in Aroostook County, Maine. He would write in great detail about potato-picking, and what kind of shoes do they wear, and what kind of gloves do they wear, and where do they eat and sleep, and do all sorts of other things. But this was primarily a guide for you to open your eyes and be looking for these things. He wouldn't tell you what to photograph at all, ever.

-- Oral history interview with Jack and Irene Delano, 1965 June 12, An interview of Jack and Irene Delano in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, conducted 1965 June 12, by Richard Doud, for the Archives of American Art.

----------

Some sources

Jack Delano, 83; Depicted the Depression, an obituary in the New York Times by By Margarett Loke, August 15, 1997

Harvesting Potatoes, text by Richard E. Rand, images from Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum, Presque Isle Historical Society and Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum

Aroostook County, Maine. October, 1940. Aroostook County, one of the largest potato producing centers in the world Photographed by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. A collection of 160 photographic prints in the Library of Congress. Summary: Photographs show Aroostook County, one of the largest potato producing centers in the world. Aerial views of fields and farms, during harvest season. Tractor and horse drawn diggers. Crews of men, women, and children. Storage barns. Loading railroad cars for shipment. Isolated potato seed foundation farms. FSA community seed program. Demonstration of cutting and planting seed potatoes. Starch factory. Homes and families of French-Canadian farmers. Portraits.

Oral history interview with Jack and Irene Delano, 1965 June 12, An interview of Jack and Irene Delano in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, conducted 1965 June 12, by Richard Doud, for the Archives of American Art.

Farms in the Aroostook County, Me., Oct. 1940 : potatoes, Library of Congress

Farms in the Aroostook County, Me., Oct. 1940 : potatoes, Flickr photos from the Library of Congress

The Potato Culture of Aroostook County, Maine, USA

Aroostook Potatoes on aroostook.net

The Maine Potato Barrel Story
Extract: "The potato barrel is native to Aroostook, Maine's largest county; once the nation's largest producer of potatoes. While the other potato producing areas used burlap sacks, Aroostook farmers used the good, tongue and groove cedar barrel. It was used in the field during harvest and in the storage and sold by the barrel; they still are in Aroostook where farmers figure the cost of potatoes by the barrel. Although automated harvesters have taken over the bulk of the work, there are fields, even today, where barrels can be seen strung out in rows for the pickers to fill. Men, women and children-even grandparents bend to the task. An even today, children are excused from school for several weeks during this most important event."

Teams And Technology Educating Researching Aroostook County Tubers
Extract: "The history of the Maine potato industry reveals an industry of great change as illustrated by the number of farmers in business in the early 1900's compared to the early 2000's. The report titled, "Aroostook: Potato Capital of America" states there were over 6,000 farmers devoted to raising potatoes in Aroostook County, Maine around 1930-1940, while another report titled "A Study of the Maine Potato Industry: Its Economic impact 2003" reports only 586 potato farms in Maine in 1997."

Aroostook potatoes

{Caption: Children gathering potatoes on a large farm, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Me. Schools do not open until the potatoes are harvested, by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration; source: FSA/OWI Color Photograph collection in the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress}

{Caption: same}

In October 1940 Jack Delano traveled to Aroostook County, Maine, to photograph the potato harvest for the Farm Security Administration. Of all the FSA photographers who worked in color film he was the most prolific and arguably the best.

When the top photo appeared on Flickr , a woman who picked potatoes in Aroostook added a reminiscence in the comments:

I feel so fortunate to have been born and raised in the potato fields of Caribou, Maine. What a wonderful opportunity to learn a good work ethic and earn money for clothes for school. We were never cold and were well dressed at the same time. My dad was the digger and the overseer of the whole operation... he would have to get off of the bus to life [i.e. let] some of the children into the bus. Sometimes he would let the men run over a barrel to build a fire to warm up our toes and fingers while waiting for the hard frost to melt on the ground so that he could dig and we could pick!! Betty Bubar Collins. -- Elizabeth 58

Another Flickr commenter thought the boy at right might be crying. The two following detail images are inconclusive but I think his expression could be a smile.



About four basket loads would fill one of the barrels that were strewn around the field. A picker would mark each barrel with a ticket which would be used to calculate earnings. A full barrel earned the picker 12 cents in 1940. An adult picker in an average field could fill 30 or more barrels and a good picker in a field free of rocks could do maybe 100. If they stuck to it, the two boys might split two and a half dollars for their day's work.

You can see from this photo from the Aroostook shoot that at least some farmers still used horses to pull a mechanical digger through their fields.

{Caption: A horse-drawn digger in operation on a (potato) farm run by a French-Canadian, Caribou, Aroostook county, Me.}

This detail shows that the digger itself was motorized.


The following pair of images show a Massey-Harris No. 1 Potato Digger. The one at left is motorized. You can tell how it worked in the photo of a non-motorized version at right. The cow-catcher burrowed down under the potatoes and the forward motion of the digger brought them up to the conveyor. As the potatoes moved back along the conveyor the earth and plant debris dropped away and the potatoes dropped off the back.


Delano trained as an artist before he took up documentary photography. This photo from the Aroostook set shows his skill at framing, instinct for positioning the horizon, and expert handling fore-, mid-, and background elements. The photo shows his artistic use of formal design elements — the foreground's diagonal furrows contrasting with diagonal elements that point to a focal point in the group of structures positioned just off center. It also shows also his fine handling of hue — the earth and sky tones balanced against each other on either side of a contrasting band with white highlights. And the barrels and figures on the foreground artificial horizon add greatly to the visual impact of the image. As with all images on this page, click to enlarge.

{Caption: Farm in the vicinity of Van Buren, Aroostook County, Me.}

These two other long shots also show his command of photographic design.

{Caption: Farm in the vicinity of Wallagrasse, Aroostook County, Me.}

{Caption: Farms in the vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook County, Me.}

FSA photographers took comparatively few color photos and only a handful of those were taken from the air. All of these color aerials appear in Delano's Aroostook set and are reproduced below. In 1965 Delano commented on the difficulty he faced in getting authorization for them.

JACK DELANO: I think life would have been a lot simpler for Roy [Stryker, Delano's boss]and probably for the rest of us if there had been less stringent insistence, if there had been less insistence, on abiding by the letter of the law in all government procedures that had to be attended to for everything, because this was in a way a kind of unusual project and it needed a little bit of unusual treatment. For example, I found myself up in Aroostook County, Maine and I wanted to get some aerial shots of the great potato fields and this got to be a real serious problem. How did I rent a plane for an hour? Telegraphs back and forth to Roy about what papers to fill out, what forms you need, and what kind of receipt to fill out, and what does the pilot have to sign, and all these things just in order for me to take a plane for an hour.

RICHARD DOUD: Did you manage?

JACK DELANO: Oh yes, I did it. I would have done it anyway and paid it out of my own pocket.

-- Oral history interview with Jack and Irene Delano, 1965 June 12, An interview of Jack and Irene Delano in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, conducted 1965 June 12, by Richard Doud, for the Archives of American Art.

{Caption: Potato farms in Aroostook County, Me.}

{Caption: Potato farms showing layout of land and buildings, vicinity of Caribou, Aroostook, Me.}

{Caption: Potato farm in Aroostook county, Me., after the potatoes have been harvested}

When Aroostook potatoes were graded, the best went for seed potatoes, next were potatoes for cooking, and last potatoes for making starch. Quality controls were stringent and most of the crop might end up in the last category. The 1940 potato crop was one of the biggest ever in the U.S. and Aroostook County was the dominant producer. Starch factories did well that year.

{A starch factory along the Aroostook River, Caribou, Aroostook County, Me.}

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I've marked this outline map of the counties of Maine to show the location where Delano took these color photos.

{source: 1940 U.S. Census of Agriculture}

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Some sources:

Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Color Photographs

Oral history interview with Jack and Irene Delano, 1965 June 12, An interview of Jack and Irene Delano in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, conducted 1965 June 12, by Richard Doud, for the Archives of American Art.
Extract:

RICHARD DOUD: There was no dictation, I mean in this whole business he was simply trying to get you started. He didn't care if you went off on your own and took a different slant?

JACK DELANO: Not at all. On the contrary, he was trying to stimulate you to do that. In some of his letters, which we will show you -- I'm sure we'll find them this afternoon -- he would write in longhand these long letters in which he would work out for you a complete shooting script on what you should be looking for in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania or in Aroostook County, Maine. He would write in great detail about potato-picking, and what kind of shoes do they wear, and what kind of gloves do they wear, and where do they eat and sleep, and do all sorts of other things. But this was primarily a guide for you to open your eyes and be looking for these things. He wouldn't tell you what to photograph at all, ever.

, I found myself up in Aroostook County, Maine and I wanted to get some aerial shots of the great potato fields and this got to be a real serious problem. How did I rent a plane for an hour? Telegraphs back and forth to Roy about what papers to fill out, what forms you need, and what kind of receipt to fill out, and what does the pilot have to sign, and all these things just in order for me to take a plane for an hour.

The Photography of Jack Délano - the Man who Colored the Forties

Potatoes, Economic Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture
Extract: "Potatoes are the leading vegetable crop in the United States (not including sweet potatoes), contributing about 15 percent of farm sales receipts for vegetables. Over 50 percent of potato sales are to processors for french fries, chips, dehydrated potatoes, and other potato products; the remainder goes to the fresh market. Although potatoes are grown year round, the fall crop comprises roughly 90 percent of potato production. "

Production of White-Potato Starch
R. H. Treadway, W. W. Howerton, Commercial Potato Production in North America, The Potato Association of America Handbook, Second Revision of American Potato Journal Supplement Volume 57 and USDA Handbook 267 by the Extension Section of The Potato Association of America
Extract: "Aroostook County became a center for production of table-stock and seed potatoes, and the starch industry provided an outlet for the culls. ... In 1940, Aroostook County had 27 starch factories, whose total daily capacity was more than 150 tons of starch. This greatly increased capacity was due mainly to construction of three modern continuous-process plants in 1938 and 1939. ... Starch factories provide an outlet for potatoes that should be kept off the food market in order to make effective the slogan, 'Sell the best—and process the rest.'"

United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, Crop Production Historical Track Records, April 2012

Potatoes Annual Summary, National Agricultural Statistics Service

Harvesting Potatoes, text by Richard E. Rand, images from Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum, Presque Isle Historical Society and Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum

Aroostook County, Maine. October, 1940. Aroostook County, one of the largest potato producing centers in the world Photographed by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration.
160 photographic prints.
Summary: Photographs show Aroostook County, one of the largest potato producing centers in the world. Aerial views of fields and farms, during harvest season. Tractor and horse drawn diggers. Crews of men, women, and children. Storage barns. Loading railroad cars for shipment. Isolated potato seed foundation farms. FSA community seed program. Demonstration of cutting and planting seed potatoes. Starch factory. Homes and families of French-Canadian farmers. Portraits.

Farms in the Aroostook County, Me., Oct. 1940 : potatoes

Farms in the Aroostook County, Me., Oct. 1940 : potatoes

The Potato Culture of Aroostook County, Maine, USA

Aroostook Potatoes

Potato country, A local harvest unearthed, by Matthew Bellico, Boston Globe Correspondent, October 5, 2008

Teams And Technology Educating Researching Aroostook County Tubers
Extract: "The history of the Maine potato industry reveals an industry of great change as illustrated by the number of farmers in business in the early 1900's compared to the early 2000's. The report titled, 'Aroostook: Potato Capital of America' states there were over 6,000 farmers devoted to raising potatoes in Aroostook County, Maine around 1930-1940, while another report titled "A Study of the Maine Potato Industry: Its Economic impact 2003" reports only 586 potato farms in Maine in 1997."

About the Maine Potato

Aroostook County, Maine on wikipedia

Aroostook War on wikipedia

Jack Delano on wikipedia

Kodachrome on wikipedia

Harvesting Oats

{Click image to enlarge. Caption: Harvesting oats. Clayton, Indiana, south of Indianapolis, by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration; source: FSA/OWI Collection of the Prints and Photographs Division , Library of Congress}

During the mid-1930s dust-bowl drought and in record-setting heat Dorothea Lange took her Rollei on assignment to an Indiana farm. The month of July in 1936 was the hottest on record in and around Clayton, Indiana. She traveled there for her employer, the Farm Security Administration, to photograph an oat harvest.

Her photos show farming in a period of transition. The farmers obtained most of the power they needed from horses and their own muscles but they would bring in power equipment at harvest time. The equipment would be cooperatively purchased and maintained among local farmers or one farmer would own and rent it. The power source would be an engine, probably a self-propelled one like the modern tractor. The engine would power a thresher which separated the oats from the stalks on which they grew. The photos show the thresher but not the engine and it's evident that Lange wasn't much interested in machines but rather the men and horses.

Oats were harvested like other grains. The oat plants would be mowed down and bundled then threshed to separate seed from stalk. This mowing and bundling had already been done when Lange arrived. Her photos show the oat plants being loaded to horse-drawn wagons and brought to the thresher where they're forked into the receiving end. The thresher pounds the plants to loosen the seed which then drops to a receiving chamber. From there it's augured up and out to a receiving wagon. The cut up stalks are blown out to make a vast pile in the field where the work is being done.

The oats — the seeds of the oat plant — are used in making beer, in cereal for breakfast, and as feed for horses and other livestock. The cut up stalks are strewn in animal stalls. Because of drought and heat this is not a good year for oats but you can't tell that from the photos.

The following photos are all captioned either "Harvesting oats. Clayton, Indiana, south of Indianapolis" or "The threshing of oats. Clayton, Indiana, south of Indianapolis." Lange took them all in the same photo-shoot and they're typically excellent as documentary record, human study, and photographic art. As with the first, they all come from the FSA/OWI Collection of the Prints and Photographs Division , Library of Congress.













Bundles of oats were tossed into the mouth of the thresher (also called a separator). A 1979 article describes the process:

A chain operated feeder fed the bundles into rapidly moving arms which cut the string tie from the bundles and spread the stalks of grain going into the giant stomach of the old separator.

As the stalks of grain moved into the machine a cylinder beat the grain from the stalks and a huge blower blew the straw from the grain.

The straw went flying out the blower and the grain was augered from the bowels of the machine.

The engine powers the thresher by means a long, wide belt made of canvas or leather. The whole process is dangerous to men and horses alike but the belt is particularly hazardous. If it breaks in opeation it whips around at great speed causing serious injury wherever it strikes flesh.





This photo and the one that follows show part of the augur mechanism for transporting the oats from the belly of the thresher to a waiting wagon.



In addition to the augur this shows a pipe, at left, from which the stalks are expelled.



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This video shows theshing in action. The tractor is modern but the thresher itself is authentically 1930s.

{Threshing oats with Advance Rumely Ideal threshing machine July 2012}

This image shows the type of tractor used in 1930s oat threshing.

{Men threshing oats in 1930's, Mississippi Digital Library}

These are hop seeds.

{Source: 99 Facts About Beer On the Wall... by Jennifer Daniel in Business Week, October 25, 2012}

The camera Lange used for this shoot was a Rollieflex Standard. This shows this medium format camera (6x6 cm) and her large format one (4x5").

{Dorothea Lange's cameras -- Graphix series D and Rolleiflex; source: womensconference.org}

This is a Rollieflex Standard, much like the one she used.

{Standard Rolleiflex Model 6RF 621 1933 with lens hood. Franke and Heidecke's second design for a 6X6 twin lens refex camera, it has all the features that the Rollei twin lens camera's were going to have for the next 50 years. The lens hood is the original Rollei item. Source: dave_dockerill on flickr (the caption is his).}

This shows pages 2-3 of the Instruction Manual for the Rolleiflex Standard.

{Instruction Manual for the Rolleiflex Standard; source: urmonas.net}

This shows Lange using her Rollie to photograph a migrant laborer in 1937.

{Dorothea Lange taking a photograph of a agricultural worker. 1937. Rondal Partridge. Source: Daring to Look, Dorothea Lange’s Photographs and Reports from the Field, by Anne Whiston Spirn (U of Chicago Press, 2008)}

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Some sources:

Harvesting oats - yesteryear style! by Jan Lee Buxengard in the Spring Grove Herald (Minnesota)

Extract: "Bundles were loaded onto the wagons and brought to the belt-driven threshing machine, which was powered by a tractor. Workers forked the bundles into the machine, heads first. Sharp sickle knives/blades cut the twine. As the bundle moves into the machine, it goes through concave cylinders that loosen the oats from the stem. Then it goes onto the shaker that walks the straw back to the blower and onto the straw pile. Meanwhile, the oats and chaff fall to the bottom of the machine and onto an auger and to the side where an elevator brings the oats up to the hopper to be weighed. At each quarter bushel, the hopper dumps the oats into an auger that takes it to the wagon."

Survivor of 1936 drought recalls conditions by Bob Buttgen, The News Sun, Monday, July 16, 2012
Excerpt:

WAWAKA, Ind. (AP) Tom Franks was 15 years old in 1936, the year that Indiana and much of the country suffered through a severe drought that spawned the Dust Bowl era in many parts of America.Now, at the age of 91, Franks still can recall the horrible conditions his family had to endure on their 77-acre farm in Wawaka.

"The corn only got to about 3 feet high, and with no water available, it just turned brown," he said. "Back then, we didn't plant corn until the first of June, because of the chance of frost and freeze. I can still see that short corn and how brown it got. Just like it's going to get this year if we don't get any rain."

Franks said his parents, Frank and Vida Franks, had six daughters and one son, William Thomas Franks. "I was fifth in line," he said.

Franks has lived an extraordinary life. Living through the drought as a teenager is just one of many trials for the man who is a hero in many respects.

Along with his many years in farming, he's a decorated World War II veteran who was presented with the Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. Twice he was shot by German soldiers in Europe, and each time he went back to the front lines after being patched up.

He's been widowed twice and survived prostate cancer, open-heart surgery and a hip replacement.

"I've pretty much outlived my friends and my enemies," he said with a well-earned chuckle.

"Our farm had just about everything back then," he said of the 1930s. "We grew red clover, oats, corn and wheat. We didn't know anything about soybeans back then. We didn't have beef cattle but had dairy cows. There were lots of ducks, geese and turkeys that had the run of the yard. We had 10 cows and probably 100 laying hens, plus four sows and a few ewes.

"I know it was dry back then, but I don't remember us having the heat like we've had this summer," he said.

(According to the National Weather Service, the highest temperature ever recorded in Indiana came during the summer of 1936, when Collegeville recorded 116 degrees.)

The Frankses didn't have electricity in 1936, and there were plenty of chores to keep a teenage boy busy.

"One thing they never taught me was how to milk a cow, and I didn't mind not knowing that," he said with a grin.

Franks has lived his entire life within a mile or so from the farm where he grew up. These days, at 91, his mind is as sharp as a tack. He's still active, having attended Wawaka High School's class reunion back in June.

"We had 21 in our class, and that was the biggest class ever, up to that time," he said. "I think there's just three of us who are still around."

Farming was much simpler back then, he recalled.

"We hadn't heard of hybrid corn yet. We just had open-pollinated corn. You'd go out in the field and pick the best ears you could find for seed the next year. You didn't have any seed salesman coming around," he said.

"Dad had a Fortson tractor. It was a hard-starting thing. You had to crank the handle just right to get it to spark and get out the way when it kicked back. I remember he traded that in on a 1020 International, and later traded that one in for a Farmall F-20," he said. "They paved U.S. 6 back in '33 or '34. Our tractor had big lugs on it, and we'd have to cover them up if we were going to drive on the pavement very far.

"We also had a big team of horses, and I enjoyed working those horses. But I also enjoyed driving our tractors. Our red clover crop was planted back in February. We would make hay out of it, and the clover made it through the spring before the drought hit that summer.

"Mom had a yard garden and grew Navy beans and potatoes. We always had a basement full of potatoes in the fall. After we harvested the Navy beans, we would stomp on them to open them up and let the wind blow away the chaff.

"We had a well that was real shallow, probably only had to go down 15 feet or so to get water. I remember we had to pump the water out with a hand pump, but eventually we got a windmill that would run the pump for us," Franks said.

"Back then, we didn't realize how hard it was for my parents and what they were going through," he recalled. "We were just coming out of the Depression. I can still remember the day after the banks closed (in 1929). Dad came back from going to bank in town, and he told us there was no money. I still remember the look of panic on my mother's face. I will never forget that.

"Dad was one of the lucky ones; he had a job driving kids to school, and that brought us a little extra money," he said. "We didn't have too much money to spend, but we had parents who loved us, and that was enough for us."

The Impact of the 1936 Corn-Belt Drought on American Farmers’ Adoption of Hybrid Corn by Richard Sutch (University of California, Riverside and the National Bureau of Economic Research, Draft of January 6, 2010) (pdf)
Extract: "A severe and sustained drought struck central North America during the 1930s. Centered on eastern Kansas, it extended north into the Canadian prairies, east to the Illinois- Indiana boarder, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and west into Montana and Idaho. See Figure 1. The seven-year period of low rainfall and high temperatures, 1932-1938, was unprecedented in the memory of the Euro-Americans who inhabited the region in its extent, severity, and duration. It has been described by climate scientists as ―one of the most severe environmental catastrophes in U.S. history [Schubert et al, 2004: 1855]. The period is best remembered for the ―Dust Bowl conditions created on the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, and adjacent parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas."

1930's: Threshing Wheat with a Threshing Machine was a Fun Time on the Farm, Work Horses Were Very Important on Small Farms in the 1930's, by Stewart Lodge, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Extract: "No threshing day story would be complete without mention of the noon meal. The neighborhood farmers who brought their horses and wagons would also bring their wives. The wives would all bring their favorite homemade pies or cakes. Then they would stay and help cook all the meat and vegetable dishes. The cooking was done on a wood stove with a room temperature of 120 degrees or more. The workers all had very large appetites, but it was almost impossible to sample all the many dishes. The hard part was trying to work so soon after such a tremendous meal. This ritual was repeated several times as you traveled to all your neighbors' farms to repay them for their help. Each wife tried to outdo the others. It is no wonder that threshing day dinners were legendary."

FSA Photographs in Indiana,
Program of Digital Scholarship, University Library, IUPUI

Back home again: Indiana in the Farm Security Administration photographs, 1935-1943, by Robert L. Reid, United States. Farm Security Administration (Indiana University Press, 1987)

Annual Crop Summary, 1936, Indiana Crops and Livestock, US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Agricultural Economics (pdf)

Maximum and Minimum Temperatures in Indiana, Indiana State Climate Office, Purdue University

THRESHING OATS CHALLENGES MEN AND OLD MACHINES by Bob Harrington on farmcollector.com

99 Facts About Beer On the Wall... by Jennifer Daniel in Business Week, October 25, 2012

It's Global Warming, Stupid by Paul M. Barrett in Business Week on November 01, 2012
Extract: "This July was the hottest month recorded in the U.S. since record-keeping began in 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported that two-thirds of the continental U.S. suffered drought conditions this summer."

Rolleiflex (standard) in camerapedia.wikia

The first Rolleiflex cameras on roleiclub.com

Economy of Indiana in wikipedia

1936 North American heat wave in wikipedia

Graphlex Series D Camera

Rollieflex Camera on wikipedia