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
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.348
catalog number
69.127.348
accession number
286471
Russia 1886Hunting Arms and Tools tokenObverse Inscription: ВЫСТАВКА ОХОТНИЧЕ - ПРОМЫСЛОВАГО ОРУЖИЮ ("Exhibition of Hunting and Commercial Arms")Reverse Inscription: ИМПЕРАТОРСКОЕ РУССКОЕ ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО / 1886 ("Imperial Russian Technical Society")Currently not on view
Description
Russia 1886
Hunting Arms and Tools token
Obverse Inscription: ВЫСТАВКА ОХОТНИЧЕ - ПРОМЫСЛОВАГО ОРУЖИЮ ("Exhibition of Hunting and Commercial Arms")
Reverse Inscription: ИМПЕРАТОРСКОЕ РУССКОЕ ТЕХНИЧЕСКОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО / 1886 ("Imperial Russian Technical Society")
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1886
ID Number
NU.69.127.359
catalog number
69.127.0359
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.345
catalog number
69.127.345
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.344
catalog number
69.127.344
accession number
286471
Henry H. Beville, the inventor of the “Iron Duke” windmill, was a traveling salesman for a farm implement company in Indiana. He designed the windmill while on the road in the 1870s.
Description
Henry H. Beville, the inventor of the “Iron Duke” windmill, was a traveling salesman for a farm implement company in Indiana. He designed the windmill while on the road in the 1870s. A young Union veteran, Beville held a variety of jobs after returning from the war and, at one point, lost all of his possessions in a fire. After receiving his patent in 1880, Beville licensed the Iron Duke for manufacture and sale, making a substantial profit on his invention. That same year, he opened a real estate office in Indianapolis. Between windmill sales and real estate, Beville had a prosperous career. Well-respected in the business community and active in civic life, he helped attract a number of manufacturing companies to Indianapolis.
In early America, windmills followed the European model. As the wind changed direction, workers manually adjusted the position of large wood and cloth sails. In the 1850s, inventor Daniel Halladay and his business partner, John Burnham, introduced a self-regulating windmill and water pump. In contrast to traditional windmills, self-regulating windmills had a tail vane to turn blades. A centrifugal governor regulated speed by changing the angle of the blades. This allowed the windmill to work efficiently in low winds and slow down for protection in high winds. Windmills provided farmers and ranchers with a reliable power source to pump water from underground. Halladay and Burnham moved from New England to Chicago to take advantage of the expanding Midwestern market, and other manufacturers followed their lead. Between 1870 and 1900, American farmers put about 230 million acres into agricultural production, much of it in the arid Great Plains.
The Iron Duke, as its name suggests, was an all-iron windmill. Until the 1870s, American windmills were wooden, containing metal only in bolts and other small parts. In 1876, the first metal windmill, J. S. Risdon’s “Iron Turbine,” appeared on the market. Other models followed, but according to historian T. Lindsay Baker, major production of metal windmills did not begin for another twenty years. Beginning in the 1890s, manufacturers were able to take advantage of lower steel prices. The manufacturers of the Iron Duke compared its strength and durability to that of wooden windmills. An advertisement in The American Agriculturist announced, “Will not shrink, warp, split, decay, and will stand more work than any mill extant.” Yet, despite the growing popularity of iron or steel models, many farmers and ranchers preferred wood. They found metal windmills difficult to repair, and many manufacturers had a reputation for using less steel to cut costs.
date made
1880
patent date
1880-04-06
inventor
Bevil, Henry H.
ID Number
MC.309201
catalog number
309201
accession number
89797
patent number
226,265
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1882
date sent
1882-06-06
ID Number
DL.057432
accession number
11548
catalog number
057432
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1880
ID Number
NU.68.263.1548
catalog number
68.263.1548
accession number
281689
Russia 1886Old Cyrillic inscriptions on both sidesReverse Inscription: 1886Currently not on view
Description
Russia 1886
Old Cyrillic inscriptions on both sides
Reverse Inscription: 1886
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1886
ID Number
NU.69.127.362
catalog number
69.127.0362
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1884
ID Number
NU.69.127.6
catalog number
69.127.6
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1889
ID Number
NU.69.127.1041
catalog number
69.127.1041
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1887
ID Number
NU.69.127.341
catalog number
69.127.341
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.342
catalog number
69.127.342
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1882
date sent
1882-06-06
ID Number
DL.057434
catalog number
057434
accession number
11548
In the days of open range, cattle grazed freely over unfenced fields. Fencing especially disturbed western cattlemen who depended upon the open range, including private holdings, for grazing.
Description
In the days of open range, cattle grazed freely over unfenced fields. Fencing especially disturbed western cattlemen who depended upon the open range, including private holdings, for grazing. Farmers fenced animals out of their crops, but as farm size increased and agriculture spread across the west, farmers needed a cheap substitute for scarce wood and stone. In 1874 Illinois farmers Joseph Farwell Glidden, Jacob Haish, and Isaac Ellwood almost simultaneously developed methods of attaching barbs to wire, a type of fencing that effectively kept cattle out of cropland. Despite patent fights and fierce competition, the barbed wire industry was launched and over time reconfigured rural geography. Both film and fiction depicted the often violent disagreement over fencing.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1883
maker
Goss, Joseph
ID Number
AG.66A1.045
catalog number
66A1.045
accession number
264475
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1887
ID Number
NU.69.127.340
catalog number
69.127.340
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.68.263.838
catalog number
68.263.0838
accession number
281689
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.343
catalog number
69.127.343
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1882
date sent
1882-06-26
ID Number
DL.057450
catalog number
057450
accession number
11650
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.346
catalog number
69.127.346
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1884
ID Number
NU.69.127.5
accession number
286471
catalog number
69.127.5
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.120
catalog number
69.127.120
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1887
ID Number
NU.69.127.339
catalog number
69.127.339
accession number
286471
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
Date made
1888
ID Number
NU.69.127.347
catalog number
69.127.347
accession number
286471
This 40-saw cotton gin and the wooden gearing came from a farm formerly owned by the Augustus C. Smith family in Monroe County, G. The gin shed was built around 1840 and operated until approximately 1900.
Description
This 40-saw cotton gin and the wooden gearing came from a farm formerly owned by the Augustus C. Smith family in Monroe County, G. The gin shed was built around 1840 and operated until approximately 1900. The gin stand was probably built in the decade following the Civil War; it bears no manufacturer's name or other identification.
Augustus Card Smith, born on March 5, 1830, owned and managed the farm and gin until his death in 1907. His wife, Sara Jane Phinazee Smith, bore eleven children. James Milton Smith took over the farm when his father died. On the eve of the Civil War in 1860, the farm had 180 acres, and the family owned one horse, four cows, and three mules. Smith marketed 11 bales of cotton that year. During the Civil War, A. C. Smith joined the Monroe County Cavalry and fought for the Confederacy. By 1880 the Smith farm had grown to 350 acres and raised 23 bales of cotton. A. C. Smith personified the yeoman farmer who owned his land and produced enough to provide for his family and to market the surplus. His life spanned the ante bellum years of increasing sectional tensions, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the establishment of segregation in the 1890s.
The Smith cotton ginning operation typified 19th-century ginning technology. The large open space on the lower level allowed mules to circle the bull gear, setting in motion the pinion gear that transferred power to the gin on the second floor. The precisely fitted wooden blocks joined by pegs and cleverly fitted supports demanded skilled workmanship.
Ginwrights both manufactured and serviced gins. The number of gins and the precise work needed to construct and maintain them necessitated a large number of skilled workmen. African Americans manufactured, maintained, and operated gins along with whites. A. C. Smith's ledgers show that he ginned for toll; that is, he took a percentage of the cotton in payment.
Date made
ca 1880
Ginstand
ca 1880
wooden gearing
1840-1910
maker
unknown
ID Number
1984.0852.001
accession number
1984.0852
catalog number
1984.0852.001

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