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 2816 items.
Page 1 of 282
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
Lummus 80-Saw Cotton Gin
- Description
- This steam-powered cotton gin, usually called a ginstand, was produced by F. H. Lummus and Sons of Columbus, Georgia. It employed a system of 80 twelve-inch saws, a pneumatic elevator, and a single-cylinder feeder. It also used a single-stand condenser, which collected the lint (cotton) as it came out of a flue and discharged it in mat form. The mat of cotton lint was then put into a compress. This machine was manufactured around 1900.
- The Lummus gin and compress could produce one and a half bales of cotton every hour, or as many as 15 bales in a twelve-hour workday. Steam whistles signaled the beginning of a new day of ginning.
- Much information about the construction of the shed that housed the gin has been lost, but it may date to the 1880s. When land development threatened the structure, the owner contacted the Smithsonian about the 80-saw ginstand. Lummus Industries restored the gin.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1900
- maker
- F. H. Lummus Sons Co
- ID Number
- 1990.0344.01
- catalog number
- 1990.0344.01
- accession number
- 1990.0344
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
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
Allis-Chalmers Fuel Cell Tractor
- Description
- In its search to develop electric power through chemical reactions, Allis-Chalmers in 1951 began research on fuel cells. In October 1959 near West Allis, Wisconsin, this fuel cell tractor plowed a field of alfalfa with a double-bottom plow. Fuel cells produce electrical power directly through a chemical reaction, without heat, smoke, or noise. Unlike standard batteries, fuel cells do not store energy but convert chemical energy to electric energy.
- This tractor has 1,008 fuel cells joined in 112 units of 9 cells each arranged in four banks that produced power to run a standard Allis-Chalmers 20 horsepower dc motor. Using a fuel cell to produce power was not a new idea in the 1950s. Over a century earlier, Sir William Grove originated the idea of a fuel cell that would run on hydrogen and oxygen. Over the years inventors experimented with a number of fuels and configurations. The search for an efficient and economical fuel cell unit continues.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1959-10
- maker
- Allis-Chalmers Company
- ID Number
- AG*76A8
- accession number
- 232284
- catalog number
- 76A08
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apple Crate Label
- Description (Brief)
- Labels are an important marketing device. They often go beyond merely identifying contents and are designed to help establish brand distinction and generate customer loyalty for a largely interchangeable product.
- This Trout brand apple crate label from Chelan, Washington was in use around 1900-1940. The label features a lithographed image of a leaping trout, meant to evoke a sense of nature popular among fruit crate labels during this period. Washington was one of the largest producers of apples during the early 20th century, and Wenoka Apples is the growers cooperative that marketed their fruits collectively.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- referenced business
- Lake Chelan Fruit Growers
- ID Number
- 1979.0441.001
- accession number
- 1979.0441
- catalog number
- 1979.0441.001
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apple Crate Label
- Description (Brief)
- This Lake Wenatchee brand apple crate from Wenatchee, Washington was in use around 1900-1940. The wilderness depicted on the Lake Wenatchee label invokes an American longing for nature through the pastoral image of snowy mountains, blue lakes, and a log cabin on the shore. The Pacific Northwest was renowned for its apple production at this time, and Wenatchee was called “the apple capital of the world.”
- Location
- Currently not on view
- referenced business
- Cascoa Growers
- ID Number
- 1979.0441.002
- accession number
- 1979.0441
- catalog number
- 1979.0441.002
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Apple Crate Label
- Description (Brief)
- Labels are an important marketing device. They often go beyond merely identifying contents and are designed to help establish brand distinction and generate customer loyalty for a largely interchangeable product.
- This Foot Hill brand apple crate label was in use in Wenatchee, Washington around 1900-1940. The image of a rising sun over the mountains and the slogan "From the Foothills of the Cascades" evokes a sense of nature that was often used in fruit crate labels. The apples were shipped by Tyrrell’s of Wenatchee, Washington. Wenatchee was one of the largest American apple producing regions during the early 20th century.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- referenced business
- Tyrrell's
- ID Number
- 1979.0441.003
- accession number
- 1979.0441
- catalog number
- 1979.0441.003
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center