The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History recently launched a new website highlighting stories about agricultural innovation and technologies.
The Smithsonian is reaching out to the public for stories on how changes in agriculture impacted work and communities. Curators are seeking narratives, recordings, photographs, videos, and other ephemera that reflect the path toward modern American agriculture. The goal is to build a comprehensive digital archive of user-submitted items to use in future exhibitions.
The American Enterprise exhibition, which opened in May, was the first exhibition to utilize submissions from the project.
Several stories are currently highlighted on the website, and more will continue to be posted. Current stories include the making of a modern dairy, Hawaiian cowboys, the spinach crisis of 2006 and the tracing technology that emerged from it, the 1950-1960s practice of “walking the beans” to clean up soybean fields, and the “No-Till” campaign of the 1980s.
