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 1732 items.
Page 1 of 174
International Harvester Model 1486 Tractor
- Description
- This 1979 tractor was owned by Gerald McCathern of Hereford, Tex., who used it in his fields for 700 hours before driving it 1,800 miles to Washington, D.C., to participate in the 1979 American Agriculture Movement demonstration. As wagon master, McCathern coordinated tractorcades that, while bringing the desperate situation facing American farmers to the attention of Congress, also substantially slowed rush-hour traffic. In the midst of the protest, a large snowstorm nearly paralyzed the city, and farmers used their tractors to pull cars out of snowbanks, earning the goodwill of many people.
- The American Agriculture Movement bought the tractor and presented it to the Smithsonian in 1986. The IH 1486 is representative of the technology that typifies modern agriculture. It has sixteen forward and eight reverse speeds, power steering and brakes, diesel turbocharged engine, wide adjustable front end, detachable front weights, air-conditioning, AM-FM radio tape deck, hydraulic adjustable seat, and an adjustable steering wheel.
- Date made
- 1979
- user
- McCathern, Gerald
- maker
- International Harvester
- ID Number
- 1986.0179.01
- catalog number
- 1986.0179.01
- accession number
- 1986.0179
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Cesar Chavez's Union Jacket
- Description
- Cesar Chavez inspired a nation to seek justice for the poorest of America's laborers. A migrant worker since childhood, Cesar Chavez pledged his life to improving the lives of his fellow workers, rather than escape the stark conditions of farm labor. Inspired by the tireless conviction of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Chavez dedicated himself to the principles of self-sacrifice and nonviolent resistance.
- For decades the attempts of reformers and labor leaders to organize farm workers in America had met with failure. It was not until Cesar Chavez began organizing the predominately Latino-Californian migrant farm workers in 1962 that the first effective union was established. As founder and president of the United Farm Workers, he brought the plight of farm laborers to national consciousness. Through community organizing, strikes, marches, boycotts, and fasts, this small, dedicated union began to win better working conditions for the most downtrodden of American workers. The union continues to fight an uphill battle to provide farm workers with the benefits most Americans believe working people are entitled: a safe work place and a decent wage.
- Shortly after his death in 1993, his wife, Helen Chavez, donated his black nylon union jacket to the National Museum of American History.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- used by
- Chavez, Cesar
- ID Number
- 1993.0409.01
- accession number
- 1993.0409
- catalog number
- 1993.0409.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Azada de Mango Corto
- Description
- A short Handled hoe, 1936 hoe. Original owner Librado Hernandez Chavez, (father of Ceser 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.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1936
- user
- Chavez, Librado Hernandes
- Chavez, Cesar Estrada
- ID Number
- 1998.0197.01
- accession number
- 1998.0197
- catalog number
- 1998.0197.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Waiting at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Beyond railroad tracks, braceros wait in a large group for processing at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.01
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros on Railroad Tracks
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros stand beside railroad tracks while waiting to enter the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.02
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.02
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros on Railroad Tracks
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros stand beside railroad tracks while waiting to enter the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.03
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.03
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Beyond barbed wire, an official armed with a rubber truncheon directs braceros while others wait in line at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.04
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.04
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Braceros Waiting at Processing Center
- Description
- Photograph: Braceros, holding their belongings, wait in lines organized by state of origin at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.05
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.05
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Reviewing Braceros' Documents
- Description
- Photograph: An official standing in a wooden shed reviews one bracero's documents while more wait in line at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.06
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.06
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Reviewing Braceros' Documents
- Description
- Photograph: An official standing in a wooden shed reviews one bracero's documents while more wait in line at the Monterrey Processing Center, Mexico.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date photographed
- 1956
- photographer
- Nadel, Leonard
- ID Number
- 2004.0138.01.07
- accession number
- 2004.0138
- catalog number
- 2004.0138.01.07
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center