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 324 items.
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Barbed Wire
- 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
- accession number
- 089797
- catalog number
- 66A1.045
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Greetings from Texas: The Lone Star state [postcard book]
- Notes
- Series 1, Box 13--U.S.A.--Texas
- Summary
- Postcard book depicts various scenes from Texas mythology: the Alamo, "Judge Roy Bean, the law west of Pecos, holding court...trying a horse thief...", cattle and cotton farms during harvest season. The booklet includes a postcard-length history of Texas, from Republic to state to Confederacy to Union membership. The images include Texas industries such as oil, cotton, cattle, etc
- Cite as
- Victor A. Blenkle Postcard Collection, ca. 1880s-1970s, Archives Center, National Museum of American History. [Collection 200.]
- Date
- 1900
- 1920
- 1846-1950
- 1900-1920
- publisher
- E. C. Kroop Co. Publ. Milwuakee
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Cows by a Stream
- Description
- This print, On the Neshimaney, which shows cows on a still, warm afternoon standing by a creek, is typical of the views of rural Pennsylvania that were the specialty of Peter Moran. He took pains to make the landscape details appear natural. French artists who depicted the rural landscape, such as Constant Tryon (1810–1865) and Charles Jacque (1813–1894), were important to Moran’s artistic development.
- Somewhat confusingly, Peter Moran exhibited three etchings with the title On the Neshaminey in his one-man show in 1887 and 1888 at Frederick Keppel’s New York gallery. This print is the largest and last of the Neshaminey series. Philadelphia book dealer Robert M. Lindsay commissioned the print from Moran and published it in an edition of 100 in late October 1886.
- This print is signed in the image and in pencil at lower left below the image, “P Moran.” It also has a remarque (small design) of a cow’s head at left in the lower margin. Remarques are of special interest to collectors as they are used on prepublication prints and then removed from the plate before the edition is printed.
- The Neshaminey Creek in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, runs north of Philadelphia through what are today mostly suburban areas, although some farmland does remain. The area shown in the print is probably near either New Britain or Edison. Peter Moran and his family spent some summers in the area.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Date made
- 1886
- graphic artist
- Moran, Peter
- publisher
- Lindsay, Robert
- ID Number
- GA*14769
- catalog number
- 14769
- accession number
- 94830
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Manufacturers of / The "Keystone" [sic] / Line / of Agricultural Implements / Keystone / Manufacturing Co. / Sterling / Ills. [sic] U.S.A. [trade card, ca. 1890]
- Summary
- Color illustration shows Uncle Sam and an international array of faces and costumes. The Keystone image to which Uncle Sam points contains a black-and-white picture of a "'Keystone' / hayloader / at work." See also cat. no. AC0060.248726
- Date
- 1890
- 1900
- ca 1890
- 19th century
- advertiser
- Keystone Manufacturing Co. (Sterling, Ill.)
- Local number
- AC0060-0000070 (AC Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
Manufacturers of / The "Keystone" [sic] / Line / of Agricultural Implements / Keystone / Manufacturing Co. / Sterling / Ills. [sic] U.S.A. [trade card, ca. 1890]
- Summary
- Color illustration shows Uncle Sam and an international array of faces and costumes. The Keystone image to which Uncle Sam points contains a black-and-white picture of a "'Keystone' / hayloader / at work." See also AC0060-0000070
- Date
- 1890
- ca 1890
- 19th century
- advertiser
- Keystone Manufacturing Co. (Sterling, Ill.)
- Local number
- 040060119.tif (AC Scan No.)
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
Maryland Farm Diary, 1879-1894
- Summary
- The volume is a combination of a farm diary and an account book, detailing the daily farm chores and by whom they were performed. Also documented in the volume are the amounts of money expended on family members and contracted laborers, amounts paid for goods purchased, and the sale of farm produce. The upkeep and maintenance on the farm and its buildings is also noted in the diary. The compiler's identity is unknown
- Cite as
- Maryland Farm Diary, 1879-1894, Archives Center, National Museum of American History
- Date
- 1879
- 1879-1894
- 19th century
- 19th Century
- vendor
- Valentino, Carmen D
- Local number
- 2012.3037 (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
- No Image Available
Agriculture [series], 1786-1971
- Summary
- Primarily trade catalogs, printed advertisements, correspondence on letterhead stationery, price lists, bills, receipts, addresses, envelopes, advertising cards, reports, manuals, memorandum books, fair tickets, lithographs, photographs, almanacs, etc., from manufacturers and distributors of farming machinery and implements. Many agricultural tools and products are represented. Also includes material from agricultural societies, such as the American Agricultural Association and the Livestock Society of America, and from experiment stations, along with general publications and periodicals
- Cite as
- Agriculture, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, box #, folder ##, digital file ###
- Date
- 1786
- 1971
- 1786-1971
- collector
- Warshaw, Isadore d. 1969
- Data Source
- Archives Center - NMAH
- No Image Available
[Trade catalogs from Samuel K. Rahn]
- Date
- 1800s
- Company Name
- Samuel K. Rahn
- Record ID
- SILNMAHTL_8571
- Data source
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries
