New York Farm Bureau Photograph Collection
Founded as a non-governmental, volunteer organization in 1911, the New York Farm Bureau offers resources to support and enrich rural life and encourages farmers to work collaboratively for better marketing and production.
This small collection of photographs documents inspection tours conducted by the New York Farm Bureau of farms, apparently in the Mohawk River Valley, in 1915-1916. The intent, as the caption of one photograph suggests, was to bring “science into the field.”
Background on New York Farm Bureau
Founded as a non-governmental, volunteer organization in 1911, the New York Farm Bureau offers resources to support and enrich rural life and encourages farmers to work collaboratively for better marketing and production. Like many contemporary farm bureaus and extension services, its mission (“to serve and strengthen agriculture”) was strongly influenced by Progressive-era ideals, and characteristically, the Bureau regularly sponsored educational programs that brought the fruits of scientific research directly to the point of application.
Contents of Collection
This small collection of photographs documents inspection tours conducted by the New York Farm Bureau of farms, apparently in the Mohawk River Valley, in 1915-1916. Organized as a caravan of cars, the tour visited towns in the Mohawk Valley including Fort Plain and Ilion, with the intent, as the caption of one photograph suggests, was to bring “science into the field.” The photos are contact prints from glass plate negatives and are date-stamped on the verso. Two images have captions written in pencil on the verso.
| “Ready for start” | 1915 June 17 | 13 x 20.5 cm | No. 1 |
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Farm Bureau Inspection Tour cards staging in from of Lewis Yerdon’s Books shop, GAR Hall, and Fort Plain, N.Y., Masonic temple.
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| Interurban rail car in front of Remington UMC plant and Union Block, possibly Ilion, N.Y. | 1915 May 26 | 13 x 20.5 cm | No. 2 |
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| Crowd gathering in the street, possibly Ilion, N.Y. | 1915 May 26 | 13 x 20.5 cm | No. 3 |
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| Inspection tour cars in unidentified town. | 1915 May 26 | 13 x 20.5 cm | No. 4 |
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| “Carrying science into the field” | 1915 May 26 | 13 x 20.5 cm | No. 5 |
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Crowd gathered in a field.
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Aquired from Steve Resnick.
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, June 2013.
)Cite as: New York Farm Bureau Photograph Collection (PH 053). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.