Agriculture - Overview
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.
"Agriculture - Overview" showing 1045 items.
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Hart Parr #3 Tractor
- Description
- After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Charles W. Hart and Charles H. Parr developed a two-cylinder gasoline engine and set up their business in Charles City, Iowa. In 1903 the firm built fifteen tractors (a term coined by Hart and Parr), and the 14,000 pound #3 is the oldest surviving internal combustion engine tractor in the United States. The two-cylinder engine has a unique hit-and-miss firing cycle that produced 30 horsepower at the belt and 18 at the drawbar.
- The tractor worked on the George Mitchell farm near Charles City for twenty-three years. Realizing the historic importance of Hart-Parr #3, the Oliver Tractor Corporation (which had absorbed Hart-Parr) purchased the tractor and used it to demonstrate the quality of the firm's products. In 1960, Oliver made a gift of #3 to the Smithsonian.
- When it arrived at the National Museum of American History, it was painted solid black and did not have a canopy. Despite its unauthentic appearance, it remained on exhibit for years. In 2003 the Smithsonian agreed to a restoration plan, and a team from Greenville, Illinois, composed of Oliver and Sherry Schaeffer, John W. Tichenor, Doug Strawser, and Todd Stockwell restored #3 to its original color and fabricated a new canopy. The Smithsonian's Larry Jones coordinated the work. Restoration was funded by the Hart-Parr/Oliver Collectors Association.
- The restoration project was fully documented both by photographs and by a journal kept by John W. Tichenor. When #3 appeared at the I & I Antique Tractor festival in Penfield, Ill., in 2003, oral history interviews were done with members of the Mitchell family, the Hart family, and the key people who did the restoration work.
- Location
- Currently on loan
- Date made
- 1903
- company co-owner
- Hart, Charles W.
- Parr, Charles H.
- user
- Mitchell, George
- maker
- Hart Parr Tractor Company
- Wrang Tang Liniment Co.
- ID Number
- AG*60A04
- catalog number
- 60A04
- F001212
- accession number
- 230442
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- No Image Available
Agriculture [series], 1786-1971
- Summary
- Primarily trade catalogs, printed advertisements, correspondence on letterhead stationery, price lists, bills, receipts, addresses, envelopes, advertising cards, reports, manuals, memorandum books, fair tickets, lithographs, photographs, almanacs, etc., from manufacturers and distributors of farming machinery and implements. Many agricultural tools and products are represented. Also includes material from agricultural societies, such as the American Agricultural Association and the Livestock Society of America, and from experiment stations, along with general publications and periodicals
- Cite as
- Agriculture, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, box #, folder ##, digital file ###
- Date
- 1786
- 1971
- 1786-1971
- collector
- Warshaw, Isadore d. 1969
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Everett H. Bickley Collection, 1919-1980 (bulk 1919-1965)
- Notes
- Bickley was one of the more active inventors of twentieth century. While his main and most portable invention was an automatic bean sorter, his other inventions were numerous and wide in scope. Examples are: a photographic exposure meter; fly killing device; dance charts; nut-cracking device; and outdoor electric sign
- Summary
- Correspondence, patents, drawings, manuals, trade literature, and photographs, particularly rich in information on Bickley's sorting devices. World War II innovations, and other inventions such as an exposure meter, dance charts, fly-killing device, and an outdoor electric sign known as the Motograph
- Spans much of the twenthieth century and is of value to researchers interested in product development, the patent application process, product marketing and promotion, World War II innovation, and the daily operation of a small, privately owned industry. General correspondence, patents and patent correspondence, drawings, manuals, trade literature, and photographs; also, several artifacts designed by Bickley, including a photographic exposure meter (Fotimer), a prototype slide mount (Color Tight Slide Mount), dance chart, and even a clipboard (Deskette)
- Cite as
- The Everett H. Bickley Collection, 1919-1980, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1919
- 1919-1980
- bulk 1919-1965
- 20th century
- 1930-1950
- creator
- Bickley, Everett H. 1888- 1972
- donor
- Beyer, Audrey Bickley
- Subject
- Bickley Manufacturing Company
- H. J. Heinz Company
- Local number
- 1999.3022 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Belle City Mfg Co.]
- Date
- 1900s
- Variant company name
- International Harvester Co. of America, Chicago, IL.
- Company Name
- Belle City Mfg Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_7178
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Benicia Iron Works]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Benicia Iron Works
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_7228
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from W. F. & John Barnes]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- W. F. & John Barnes
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_7406
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Bickley Mfg. Co.]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Bickley Mfg. Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_7548
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Carbon Limestone Co.]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Carbon Limestone Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_9699
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Jas. Butterworth & Son]
- Date
- 1900s
- Variant company name
- Established 1866
- Company Name
- Jas. Butterworth & Son
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_9708
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Carver Cotton Gin Co.]
- Date
- 1900s
- Company Name
- Carver Cotton Gin Co.
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_10002
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries