Browse Items (1399 total)

Roadway leading to migrant camp run by Elijah Hunter on behalf of Marquart Farms. At least four large buildings--each of which had a shared kitchen and dormitory-style beds--suggests that the farm employed a large number of migrant farmworkers.…

A letter to the editor of The Genesee Farmer claimed that the "drudgery and discomfort to which farmers’ wives and daughters are subjected" was even greater than the wives of laborers and mechanics. This was because farm women were responsible for…

Table from an in-depth survey of agricultural records reveals transformations in the economics of farming. While overall potato production rose during the first half of the 20th century, the "disposition" of that production changed: a smaller…

From the popular printmakers of the 19th century--an estimated 2-3 new works per week--comes this characteristic lithograph of rural life. Its composition is striking for the angled view into a farm's domestic spaces, so viewers see what is "behind"…

A probably condensed engraving that shows, in a single vista, the cutting of sugar cane at right with an overseer on horseback, which is then carted to an enormous sugar mill--costing an estimated $10 million dollars each in current dollars. While a…

Lead image of a detailed article on the best ways to lay out a farm renders a bird's eye view of a house, barn and outbuildings, fruit orchard, flower garden, penned livestock, and a field under cultivation. In the foreground a horse and wagon pass…

Portion of an advertisement for horse-powered machinery depicts a team on treadmill with the company's patented "endless chain railway." Its purpose was to process harvested grains like wheat or barley and eliminate the arduous work of separating…

Migrant farmworker tossing what appears to be potatoes onto a conveyor belt at the Roy Gibson Farm in Wayland, NY. Gibson was a long-time member of the Steuben County Potato Growers Association and had a reputation as a relatively fair employer and…

Dressing flax was a complicated, labor-intensive process to remove seeds and stems so as to separate out the plant's valuable fibers. This image appears in an extensive advertisement for a mechanical dresser--or rather, three different models--that…

Illustration accompanies a suggestion by editor of the Country Gentleman, perhaps Luther Tucker, as to a simple and cheap method for picking apples. Its extremely detailed description appears overly fussy, yet shows the careful thought behind even…