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.
"Agriculture - Overview" showing 4235 items.
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[Farm field and buildings.] Honolulu / Waipahn [on envelope]. [stereo photonegative.]
- Notes
- Currently stored in box 1.1.27 [210], moved from [154]
- Orig. no. 56-C
- Date
- 1900
- 1910
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- H.C. White Co
- Local number
- RSN 5031
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
A peasant girl and her patient servants, Northern Spain. 2273 Photonegative 1900
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Currently stored in box 3.1.25 [170]
- Date
- 1900
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- McKern
- Local number
- RSN 13784
- Video number 13059
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Richard Adlard Collection, 1930s
- Notes
- Exchange student in China, 1937
- Summary
- Correspondence, extensive agricultural notes, photographs, maps, and a scrapbook from Adlard's time as a student at Lingnan University, China. His photographs, commentary, and notes on rural life in both China and the Philippines are detailed and insightful. Includes articles written by Adlard that were inspired by his time in the Orient, on Philippine cocoanut production, Chinese village life, the farmers of China, soybeans as food and pre-war China. Also includes Adlard's later articles for various publications and his correspondence with Julia Needham of the Troy-Bilt Owner News about Adlard's work with drip system irrigation and design as well as his use of Chinese farming practices in his own home garden. Includes some brief biographical information on Adlard, related gardening and agricultural pamphlets and two copies of the Garden Way Inc. publication, "Gardening Beyond the Plow." This collection is valuable in its view of rural China and the Philippines just prior to World War II and the domination of East Asia by Japan
- Cite as
- Richard Adlard Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1930
- 1940
- 1930s
- 1930-1940
- creator
- Adlard, Richard (Ithel Richard) 1915-1997
- Local number
- Pending (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Treadwell Account Books, 1861-1865
- Summary
- Includes accounts of several employees of George B. and Sanford L. Treadwell of Mittineagus, Massachusetts, two written as small pieces of paper sewn between covers of calfskin. One volume is for 1861, one for 1862, and the other for 1863-1865
- Cite as
- Treadwell Account Books, 1861-1865, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Madeleine Wilkinson
- Date
- 1861
- 1861-1865
- 19th century
- author
- Treadwell, George B
- donor
- Wilkinson, Madeleine
- author
- Treadwell, Sanford L
- collector
- Domestic Life, Division of (NMAH, SI)
- Local number
- 204579 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Henry Fuller Account Books, 1856-1862
- Notes
- Fuller was a husband of Mary Leet (Mrs. Jude) Ludington. See also collection #27
- Summary
- Two account books, 1856-1862, of Henry Fuller, West Springfield, Massachusetts, for agricultural supplies and equipment, and miscellaneous expenses
- Cite as
- Henry Fuller Account Books, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1856
- 1856-1862
- 1850-1870
- 19th century
- author
- Fuller, Henry (merchant)
- donor
- Wilkinson, Madeleine
- collector
- Domestic Life, Division of (NMAH, SI)
- Subject
- Leet, Mary (Mrs. Jude Ludington)
- Local number
- 204,579 (NMAH Acc.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
[Agriculture in India.] 2219 photonegative 1905
- Notes
- Company catalog card included
- Similar to RSN 11455
- Currently stored in box 2.1.17 [64]
- Date
- 1905
- 1900-1910
- publisher
- Underwood & Underwood
- photographer
- Johnson
- publisher
- American Stereoscopic Co
- Local number
- RSN 10517
- Video number 09788
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Forty-Saw Cotton Gin, Wooden Gearing
- 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- 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
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Advance Rumely Ideal Separator, 32 x 52
- Description
- Ronald Miller of Geneseo, Illinois, donated this threshing machine to the Museum in 1988. The bright red paint that covered the machine when new had faded, but wood and internal parts were in excellent shape, a testament to the care that farmers lavish upon their machines.
- Smithsonian conservators decided to accept the threshing machine without restoration, and this separator threshed oats at the 1991 Smithsonian Folk Festival, pulled by a Rumely Oil Pull 20-40 tractor.
- The 32 x 52 designation refers to a 32-inch cylinder and the 52-inch-wide threshing shoe. The 7-ton machine was designed to have four men pitching bundles of grain into the feeder; it could thresh over 2,500 bushels a day.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1923
- maker
- Advance Rumely Company
- ID Number
- 1988.0371.01
- catalog number
- 1988.0371.01
- accession number
- 1988.0371
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Rumely Oil Pull Tractor, 20-40
- Description
- In 1923, John Ploesch purchased this Rumely Oil Pull tractor for $4,000 from an Advance-Rumely dealer in Woodbine, Illinois. He arranged with neighbors to thresh their crops, organizing what was called a threshing ring that lasted until 1948. The Rumely Oil Pull was belted to the threshing machine that separated the grain. Threshing became a major social event for farmers, laborers, and their families.
- The Rumely Oil Pull was the first tractor to use an oil cooling system, which kept the engine at a steady temperature no matter how heavy the tractor's load. The cooling system allowed hotter cylinders and easier ignition. The Oil Pull starts on gas but runs on kerosene, making it much lighter and easier to maneuver than its steam-driven predecessors. This Rumely Oil Pull weighs seven tons.
- Rumely engineers also made space for an extra person in the tractor's cab, gave the operator a clear view in every direction, and placed all the mechanisms--gear shift, clutch, foot brake, steering wheel, carburetor, and more--in easy reach. These new design elements helped the Rumely Oil Pull to surpass most old kerosene tractors, and many of these features were further refined in gasoline-powered machines.
- Because of their hot-riveted steel frame construction, Rumely Oil Pulls lasted through years of harvests. Some were still in use as late as the 1960s.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1923
- maker
- Advance Rumely Company
- assembler
- Miller, Ronald E.
- ID Number
- 1988.0372.01
- catalog number
- 1988.0372.01
- accession number
- 1988.0372
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Cotton Weigh-up Scale
- Description
- This cotton weigh-up scale was a gift of James W. Butler and came from the H. H. Hopson Plantation near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Such scales were customarily used in cotton fields to weigh each worker's daily pickings, which were the basis of pay. Because cotton is so light, only the most proficient workers could pick 300 pounds.
- Cotton that was planted in April or May and chopped and cultivated through the summer would be ready for picking by September. The picking season could last into December. Once the cotton had been picked, it was taken to a gin where the seeds were separated from the lint. The baled lint went to textile mills, and the seeds were crushed to make vegetable oil and cattle feed.
- ID Number
- 1989.0423.01
- catalog number
- 1989.0423.01
- accession number
- 1989.0423
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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