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
1935
maker
Heller, Helen West
ID Number
GA.20064
catalog number
20064
accession number
182887
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1935
maker
Heller, Helen West
ID Number
GA.20062
catalog number
20062
accession number
182887
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1930s
maker
Keppler, Victor
ID Number
PG.006263.O
catalog number
6263O
accession number
238737
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1943
maker
Associated Press
ID Number
2013.0327.0814
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0814
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.0775
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0775
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1945
ID Number
2013.0327.0977
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0977
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.0527
catalog number
2013.0327.0527
accession number
2013.0327
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1945
ID Number
2013.0327.1016
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.1016
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
maker
Associated Press
ID Number
2013.0327.0780
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0780
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
ID Number
2013.0327.0772
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0772
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1940s
maker
Acme Photo
ID Number
2013.0327.0771
accession number
2013.0327
catalog number
2013.0327.0771
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1937
Associated Date
1937
maker
Fassbender, Adolf
ID Number
2013.0327.0031
catalog number
2013.0327.0031
accession number
2013.0327
A short Handled hoe, 1936 hoe. Original owner Librado Hernandez Chavez, (father of Cesar Estrada Chavez). The hoe has a metal blade welded to a metal neck and a wooden handle. The two are attached by a slot screw.
Description
A short Handled hoe, 1936 hoe. Original owner Librado Hernandez Chavez, (father of Cesar Estrada Chavez). The hoe has a metal blade welded to a metal neck and a wooden handle. The two are attached by a slot screw. The top edge of the blade is similar to the two curves at the top of a valentine hear. Blade recently sharpened.
The short-handled hoe brings back memories of back-breaking labor for generations of Mexican and Mexican American migrant workers who sustained California's booming agricultural economy. Since the late 1800s, its expansive fields of produce have relied on a cheap, mobile, and temporary workforce. The short-handled hoe required workers to bend painfully close to the ground to weed and thin crops. The state abolished the short-handled hoe in 1975, ruling it an occupational hazard after a seven-year legal battle. During this period of political mobilization, the predicament of the migrant farm worker became emblematic of the limited opportunities and the cycle of poverty that trapped many Mexican Americans. In 1966, when Mexican and Filipino American farm workers were brought together under the banner of the United Farm Workers of America, the struggle for labor rights was understood by its supporters as part of the much larger civil rights movement. It was not just important for Mexican Americans but also other low-paid workers. The hoe pictured here belonged to Librado Hernandez Chavez, father of civil rights leader and farm worker organizer, Cesar Estrada Chavez.
Description (Spanish)
La azada de mango corto es un recordatorio de aquellas épocas en que generaciones de trabajadores migratorios mexicanos y mexicoamericanos se quebraban las espaldas en las labores que sustentaron la floreciente economía agrícola de California. Desde fines del 1800, las extensiones de campos de producción agrícola crecían respaldadas en la mano de obra barata, móvil y temporaria. La azada de mango corto exigía que los trabajadores se agacharan penosamente cerca del suelo para poder desbrozar y entresacar los cultivos. El estado abolió la azada de mango corto en 1975, decretándola como elemento de riesgo laboral luego de una batalla que se prolongó siete años. Durante esta época de movilización política, el predicamento del trabajador agrícola se convirtió en un emblema de la limitación de oportunidades y el ciclo de pobreza en el que muchos mexicoamericanos se hallaban atrapados. En 1966, cuando los trabajadores del campo, mexicoamericanos y filipinoamericanos, se unieron bajo la bandera del Sindicato de Trabajadores Agrícolas de América (UFW, por sus siglas en inglés) , la lucha por los derechos laborales fue comprendida por sus partidarios como parte del movimiento más amplio por los derechos civiles. No sólo era importante para los mexicoamericanos, sino también para otros trabajadores mal pagos. La azada que aquí se ilustra pertenecía a Librado Hernández Chávez, padre del líder de los derechos civiles y organizador de los trabajadores agrícolas, César Estrada Chávez.
Date made
1936
user
Chavez, Librado Hernandes
Chavez, Cesar Estrada
ID Number
1998.0197.01
accession number
1998.0197
catalog number
1998.0197.01
John T. McCutcheon (1870-1949) was a Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist, known for his political cartoons and fascination with technology, particularly aviation. This cartoon panel consists of two panels.
Description
John T. McCutcheon (1870-1949) was a Pulitzer-Prize winning cartoonist, known for his political cartoons and fascination with technology, particularly aviation. This cartoon panel consists of two panels. Under panel 1: "When will we be cheering on American built trans-oceaning dirigibles?" British and German dirigibles crossing the Atlantic with Americans watching. Under 2: "Asleep at the Switch." Wizard of weather fell asleep with a drought plaguing the Corn Belt.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
07/01/1930
original artist
McCutcheon, John T.
publisher
Tribune Printing Company
ID Number
GA.24205
catalog number
24205
accession number
1976.320859

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.