Agriculture

From butter churns to diesel tractors, the Museum's agricultural artifacts trace the story of Americans who work the land. Agricultural tools and machinery in the collections range from a John Deere plow of the 1830s to 20th-century cultivators and harvesters. The Museum's holdings also include overalls, aprons, and sunbonnets; farm photographs; milk cans and food jars; handmade horse collars; and some 200 oral histories of farm men and women in the South. Prints in the collections show hundreds of scenes of rural life. The politics of agriculture are part of the story, too, told in materials related to farm workers' unions and a group of artifacts donated by the family of the labor leader Cesar Chavez.

John Deere Plow
John Deere Plow, 1830s
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1896
ID Number
NU.69.127.612
catalog number
69.127.612
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1898
publisher
Underwood & Underwood Illustration Studios
maker
Strohmeyer & Wyman
ID Number
2006.0142.21
accession number
2006.0142
catalog number
2006.0142.21
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1891
ID Number
NU.NU61826.1
catalog number
NU61826
accession number
210914
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
ID Number
NU.68.263.832
catalog number
68.263.832
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1897
ID Number
NU.69.127.614
catalog number
69.127.614
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1899
ID Number
NU.69.127.1057
catalog number
69.127.1057
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1897
ID Number
NU.66.28887
catalog number
66.28887
accession number
270424
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1894
ID Number
NU.68.263.720
catalog number
68.263.0720
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1894
ID Number
NU.68.263.1440
catalog number
68.263.1440
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
ID Number
NU.69.127.28
catalog number
69.127.28
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1896
ID Number
NU.68.263.1675
catalog number
68.263.1675
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1890
ID Number
NU.69.127.690
catalog number
69.127.690
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1895
ID Number
NU.69.127.1034
catalog number
69.127.1034
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
associated date
1891
ID Number
NU.68.263.750
catalog number
68.263.750
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1895
ID Number
NU.69.127.444
catalog number
69.127.444
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1899
ID Number
NU.68.263.1432
catalog number
68.263.1432
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1896
ID Number
NU.68.263.1832
catalog number
68.263.1832
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1894
ID Number
NU.68.263.1766
catalog number
68.263.1766
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1896
ID Number
NU.68.263.783
catalog number
68.263.0783
accession number
281689
This rope lock carrier was designed by the Louden Machinery Company to be used with their overhead monorail system. This system could be used to transport hay or equipment around the barn, making it easier and faster to complete work.
Description
This rope lock carrier was designed by the Louden Machinery Company to be used with their overhead monorail system. This system could be used to transport hay or equipment around the barn, making it easier and faster to complete work. Industrial businesses began using the monorail system inside factories to transport equipment and waste quickly and efficiently around the building. Louden quickly capitalized on this use and began adjusting the design in order to best meet industrial needs. The monorail system surpassed the agricultural products in sales by the 1920s, and it is the only part of the company which remains in business today (2013).
William Louden was born in 1841 in Cassville, Pa but his parents had moved to Iowa before he turned a year old. Louden had a small build and was often sick as a child, which made it harder for him to complete his farm chores. He learned at an early age he would have to change the tools he used since he could not change his physique to be better suited for farm work of that era. In 1867, he had applied for his first two patents, one was a device used to lift and stack hay and the other was used to carry hay into the barn. While not an instantaneous success, his device allowed barn architecture to dramatically change from single to two-level structures, therefore doubling the usable space.
Louden started his first agricultural business in 1868, working out of space on his father-in-law’s farm. In 1870, he moved his operation into Fairfield, IA. He struggled the first few years and in 1877, he was forced to file for bankruptcy. Undeterred, he spent the next 7 years traveling to farms in the area, installing his equipment and developing a consumer base for his products. In 1887, he founded Louden Machinery Company and in 1892, he incorporated, naming his brother as President and himself as Vice-President in order to focus more on the invention and production side of the business. Over the next 40 years, Louden Machinery would apply for approximately 100 patents for various inventions and improvements, including the all steel cow stall, individual automatic drinking cup, flexible barn door hanger and the supertrack overhead carrier.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1898
ID Number
AG.75A09.06
catalog number
75A09.06
accession number
1987.0226
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1899
ID Number
NU.69.127.424
catalog number
69.127.424
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1894
ID Number
NU.68.263.976
catalog number
68.263.0976
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1891
ID Number
NU.NU61826.2
catalog number
NU61826
accession number
210914
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1899
ID Number
NU.68.263.867
catalog number
68.263.0867
accession number
281689

Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.

If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.