Collections by Name | Collections by Region
Agricultural Heritage Collections
Appropriately reflecting the university’s history as the nation’s first land grant college, the Agricultural Heritage Collections represent one of the museum’s largest assemblages of related items. The focus of the collections is generally Midwestern, with heavy Michigan provenance but also included are comparative objects used in agricultural practices around the world. Archeological materials provide an early record of agricultural practices of the Great Lakes region’s indigenous peoples but the majority of the collections are post-contact historical objects dating largely from the mid-19th to mid-20th century.
Collections include hand tools, large machinery, and other equipment used in animal husbandry; the cultivation, harvesting, and processing of crops; and objects representing a wide array of activities (i.e. beekeeping, carpentry, coopering, blacksmithing, food preparation) associated with small-scale farm life. Significant discrete collections include models of barns made as a Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) project; patent models of agricultural machinery; Michigan State Grange materials; oral histories and objects related to Michigan 4-H history; and photographs, ephemera and objects which document the worldwide agricultural contributions of Michigan State University from its early beginnings as the Michigan Agricultural College.
In addition, the collections include extensive holdings of ephemera, including seed catalogs, farm equipment catalogs and manuals, farm publications, extension bulletins, and photographs of standard and experimental agricultural operations.
The collection of agricultural material was begun primarily in the 1940s and has been built through donations and faculty/staff research projects. In 1955, the collections were greatly expanded when, in honor of the university’s 100th anniversary, then MSU president John Hannah issued a call to Michigan citizens to donate their historical agricultural materials to the university. Stories are told of farmers driving their farm vehicles to the university and dropping implements off on campus. Together, these collections provide an invaluable resource for cultural, economic, and historical studies of this region’s agricultural heritage. The collection has also been extensively used in small on-campus departmental exhibits, in large-scale exhibitions at the Michigan State University Museum, in traveling exhibitions at museums around the state, and in displays at numerous agricultural educational venues and events such as AgExpo, Country Life Historic Park/Michigan State Fair, Ag and Natural Resources Week, Festival of Michigan Folklife, and county fairs in Michigan and across the country. A related collection of materials is housed at the MSU Library (see http://agbib.lib.msu.edu). The MSU Museum also maintains some selected comparative materials from cultures and regions around the world.
Donors and Fieldworkers
Various
Exhibitions
Michigan State Fair, Detroit, Michigan, 1991. 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996. Country Life Historic Park, Michigan State Fair Grounds, Detroit, Michigan, August, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996. Festival of Michigan Folklife, Michigan State University, 1994. The Age of Packaging (presented in partnership with MSU’s School of Packaging and in commemoration of the school’s 50th anniversary), Michigan State University Museum, East Lansing, Michigan, Feb. 24 – Dec. 1, 2002 Michigan Barns: Timberframe, Plank and Pole Barn, Michigan State University Museum, July 2003 – December 2004. In addition, a number of displays of agricultural materials were developed for presentation at Ag Expo, East Lansing, Michigan from 1980-1999.
“America’s Fairs: Educating Communities”
“Horse Racing: Early Fair Time Entertainment”
“Livestock Heritage: Serving a Nation”
“Bean Cultivation in Michigan,” “Dairying in Michigan”
“A Year in the Life of a Farm Family”
“Potato Farming in Michigan”
“Draft Horses: Powering Michigan Farms”
“Michigan’s Heritage Barns: An Artist’s Perspective”
“Love of the Land: Stories of Life, the Land, and Environment”
“A Year in the Life of a Farm Family”
“Michigan’s Barn Heritage”
“Traditional Barns: Timber and Plank Frame Structures”
“Preserving Michigan’s Barns” (in collaboration with the Michigan Barn Preservation Network)
Publications
Julie Avery. Agricultural Fairs in America: Tradition, Education, Celebration. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum, 2000.
Paul E. Kindig. Butter Prints and Molds. West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, 1986.
Steve Stier, Michigan Barn and Farmstead Survey Manual. East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum, 2000.
Beekeeping skep, 19th century
Works Progress Administration barn model, c. 1930
Molding plane, c. 1900
Hand hewn grain shovel, 19th century
