Seeing the Details, Part 2

By: Christina Ely, Registrar for Plowline: Images of Rural New York

After writing my last blog post titled "Seeing the Details" about a 19th-century photograph in the Plowline: Images of Rural New York Collection, I received an email from Steve Kellogg, Supervisor at the Field Blacksmith Shop at The Farmers' Museum. The email was very enlightening and conveyed some great information regarding pressed hay in the 19th century that I thought I would share with you.

Detail, 19^th Century Farm Scene, 1880-1890, by W.H. Bell, F0003.2011.  Plowline: Image of Rural New York.  The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, New York.

As it turns out the two "sleds" that I noted in the foreground (seen in the detail above) are the "bobs" to a farm bobsled. Steve notes in his email that the bobsleds were used in winter for farm hauling and, in this case, were probably used to haul pressed hay.

Most notable from his email is the following information, which really sheds some light on why farmers in the image were pressing hay in the winter months: 

"The hay was cut in mid-summer and had been in the barn for months. Why are they baling it when it clearly was already stored in the haymow loose? Judging by the A-frame, chain, and hay hook the baled hay is very hard to move by hand."

Detail, 19^th Century Farm Scene. F0003.2011.

Steve also notes the following about how the pressed hay was used:

"You pressed the hay to ship it by Canal or Train to NYC. Rectangular bales fit efficiently into a rail car. New York City had a lot of livestock, and a voracious appetite for good hay in midwinter. You would make more money selling it in winter than you could selling it in the summer. Therefore pressed hay was an excellent crop to sell in midwinter. The photo not only documents the farm family using expensive equipment, but also producing a high-value export at the same time."

I found this information very helpful in explaining why this type of work would be done in winter as opposed to summer, and I hope you find it an interesting comment on hay pressing and sales in the late 19th century as well.

Many thanks to Steve Kellogg - who also has a blog - for the follow-up email and information!

Seeing the Details

By: Christina Ely, Registrar for Plowline: Images of Rural New York

19th Century Farm Scene, 1880-1890, by W.H. Bell, F0003.2011.  Plowline: Image of Rural New York.  The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, New York.

Recently, I used the photograph above with a group of students to discuss looking at agricultural photographs. It proved to be a fruitful and valuable discussion, better than I could have hoped for. Before the session I had spent quite some time looking at this photograph, discovering the details and thinking about the purpose and background of this 19th century image. Here I will discuss a little bit about what I discovered through looking closely at the details and a little research.

When we added this image to the Plowline: Images of Rural New York Collection last January, I thought I had created a fairly comprehensive description.  It wasn’t until a couple weeks ago, that I found there was a lot more to learn about this photograph.  Let’s take a look!

What do you notice first when you look at the photograph? I noticed the barn, five men, the stack of loose hay, the hay on the wagon that the two men stand on, the team of horses and the sleigh. Those seem to be the main features of the photograph for me. When looking a little closer, I noticed there are two sleds turned upside down in the foreground; bales of hay and of course, snow. Here’s what I didn’t notice or think too much about until I was preparing for the class last month. 

As I was thinking about this photo one night at home, I thought “wait, how did they make those hay bales in the photo?” That thought led me to wonder when the hay baler was invented.

Detail, 19th Century Farm Scene. F0003.2011.

I came into work the next morning and immediately took out the photo. I looked closely at the “wagon” of loose hay the two men are standing on and realized that THAT was how they made those hay bales.

Detail, 19th Century Farm Scene. F0003.2011.

It wasn’t a wagon at all. I immediately started researching when the hay baler was invented, and found that the predecessor to the baler (a term coined in the 1920s or 1930s) was a “hay press” and it was invented around 1870. That was a fairly new machine the men were using. There were different types –horse powered and another type that was invented in 1881 which was controlled by a pressure gauge. I am still not sure which type this is as it is difficult to discern what is in the faded recess behind the hay press, horses and men. It could be the pressure gauge press, but there are also clues that this may be a horse powered press.

This led me to thinking more about something else I had researched when the photo came to us - that prominent sleigh so nicely placed in the foreground.  It looks like a very nice sleigh and with a little research; I discovered it’s a VERY nice sleigh.  The sleigh is an “Albany Cutter.” Not only is it an Albany Cutter, but it’s a four seat Cutter! This was the primo sleigh of the time period. It was the “Cadillac” of the day. Upon further research, I learned that just as cars are updated from year to year, so was the cutter. Paint features upon it let people would know approximately when a person purchased the sleigh. This was a very nice thing to own.

Detail, 19th Century Farm Scene. F0003.2011.

These two objects led me to question: why there was such a nice sleigh and hay press with loose hay upon it (not to mention all the other hay and bales we see) outside in the winter? What was the purpose of this photo? The more I looked at the photo and thought about these details the more I realized that this was not a photograph taken by a photographer who just happened by this nice farm scene during a leisurely drive in the county. This was a photo to show prominence, ownership, success. The nice sleigh, the newly-invented hay press, all that hay suggesting a fair amount of land was owned, the strong team of horses - all these show that the farmers were doing pretty well for themselves at the time and they wanted to have a record to show it. Of course, with all these things discovered – I still have a multitude of questions about what I don’t see in the photo or have knowledge of. What type of farm was this- gentleman or dairy, perhaps otherwise? What did the house look like? Who ARE all these men in the photograph? Where exactly was this farm in Cortland County, New York? When was that barn built? How much land was part of the farm? Did they lumber, sugar, ice harvest in the winter and spring months (maybe that’s what they are alluding to with those two small upside-down sledges)?

When we look closely and think about the details in a photograph, the purpose of the photograph, the photographer’s and subject’s intent, and what we DON’T see in the photo we can learn a lot more than we initially might from a simple quick glance. It can be quite a rewarding experience.

“Thrashin’ Day”

By: Christina Ely, Registrar for Plowline: Images of Rural New York


Recently The Farmers’ Museum purchased three photographs for the Plowline: Images of Rural New York collection which really piqued my interest. The photographs show threshing equipment and the process - something I knew nothing about until these photographs entered my office. As it turns out it is quite a fascinating and somewhat complicated subject. Threshing machines made of wood were used as far back as the Civil War. The greatest advances to the machines took place in the latter part of the 19th century when J.I. Case, the Masseys and McCormick & Deering starting producing and selling the giant machines like those we see in these photographs. Most threshers and threshing companies were located in the “western” part of the country (not necessarily what we think of the West now, however), as that is where the large grain farms were located. However, I was surprised to learn that the thresher in one of the photographs was manufactured by the Pioneer Company, out of Shortsville, New York, located in Ontario County.

Hart Parr Tractor and Pioneer Thresher, by unidentified photographer, 1931, F0017.2011(01). Plowline: Images of Rural New York. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, New York.

 Threshing was a large and costly job in which an entire year’s crop was put through the machine in one day. Since the machines took a large capital investment, they were acquired in three different ways. Generally one or two local farmers who owned a machine would assist all the local farmers with the duty of threshing grain and those local farmers would pay the owner(s) a fee for use. Sometimes the neighborhood or town farmers went in together and purchased the thresher, all owning a portion of the equipment (and upkeep). This meant that literally the entire community would help thresh everyone’s crop. Neighborhood threshing was the norm. In the west, custom threshing crews were assembled to run the engine and thresher and the farmer provided the rest of the crew from the neighborhood. The custom threshing crews traveled from farm to farm with the machine, from south to north helping each farmer process his annual crop. The threshing crews were quite large as well, requiring up to twenty to twenty-five men to harvest and transport the crop from the field and to storage, run the machines, pitch the grain into the thresher, bag the grain and heave the straw in a pile or on a wagon, as well as other jobs dependent of the time period. The process of threshing can be seen in the two Plowline photos below.

W.E. Vile’s Thresher and Oliver Tractor, by unidentified photographer, 1930-1940, F0017.2011(02). Plowline: Images of Rural New York. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, New York.

Threshing, by unidentified photographer, 1942, F0017.2011(03).  Plowline: Images of Rural New York. The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, New York.

Another aspect of “Thrashin’ Day” was the community dinner that was served by the farmer’s wife and daughters for whom the work was being done.  This small group of women would cook up a meal for the large group of men and boys completing the job. It was an effort that the women and girls took great pride in (and served as an act of competition among the women as well). The meal preparation started at or before the break of dawn, if not the day before. The meal consisted of sweet summertime drinks, many kinds of roasted meats, vegetables from the farm, fresh baked breads, and an assortment of freshly baked fruit pies, cakes and cookies. As you might assume, the farmer whose wife was an excellent cook and baker had no problem recruiting help the next time he needed it.

Threshing machines vastly increased productivity and the prosperity of the farmer within a few short years by allowing him to expand his crop and harvest.  When using hand tools such as a sickle less than an acre could be harvested per day, the scythe increased this four-fold. (Threshing was then left for the winter months,) With the threshing machine a farmer could process his entire crop in one day with a suitable sized team, and the entire job was complete. 

Chickens! I'm not in suburbia anymore.

By: Christina Ely, Registrar for Plowline: Images of Rural New York

When I was a young child, my parent’s owned a dairy farm.  Strictly dairy.  We had no horses, no goats, donkeys, turkeys….and certainly there were no “free-range” chickens.  I had never really encountered a real, live chicken until my first visit to The Farm in Ilion, NY.   Then I found that I was followed, surrounded, blocked by and was a curiosity to dozens of chickens of all different types.  At first, I was not so fond.  But then, the more I visited, the more accustomed I became of them. Now, I really like chickens. Especially, the one we aptly named “Chicken.” 

Here's "Chicken:"

Chicken is especially friendly, daring and curious.  By offering her sunflower seeds, over time she was trained to come to us and eat from our hand.  Now, whenever she sees us, she comes running (which is a funny sight to see).  She is a sweet creature, and now, the largest chicken of the bunch! 

We don’t have many photos of chickens in the Plowline: Images of Rural New York Collection, but we do have a couple.  They too are sweet. There is something about baby chics that is especially endearing, at least to me.  However, I realize not all people like chickens and roosters, as evidenced by my friend Mary’s reaction when she encounters them.  She loaths any type of bird – especially a bird of such size. 

This photo by Daniel Handal, a New York, New York photographer was taken at Phillies Bridge Farm in New Paltz, New York in 2009.  These chics are especially cute with their mottled coloring. 

This photo was a snapshot taken on Edward Garretson’s Hemlock Valley Farm.  I had the great fortune of interviewing Edward when the family donated a quantity of negatives to The Farmers’ Museum last fall.   At one point in our conversation he stated that he did NOT like chickens, so when I saw this photo, I was positive it was from another person’s farm.  Much to my surprise, they were his! He bought a whole clutch of them one year to raise and sell, but as he states “the price dropped out, and so we ate ‘um up.”  Well, that IS the reality I guess for those of us who eat meat. 

So, over that last three years I have become fond of the chickens at The Farm, and the fresh eggs!  And, I hope “Chicken” spends many more years with us.   For fresh eggs from The Farm and other good eats from local farmers, visit the Cooperstown Farmers’ Market on Saturdays from 9 am – 2 pm, May 7 – December 17, 2011. 

Images above:

Jessica at Phillies Bridge Farm, New Paltz, Daniel Handal, 2009.  F0007.2010(001).  Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

Baby Chicks in a Brooder, Unidentified photographer, ca. 1960. F0010.2010(32). Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

Egg basket photo Courtesy Laura Knight

The Grange: A Unique American Institution

By: Christina Ely, Registrar for Plowline: Images of Rural New York

The newest collection of photographs in Plowline: Images of Rural New York captures views of nine Grange Halls in Otsego County and were taken between 2000 and 2002 by local photographer Andy Baugnet.  Some of the Granges are still functioning, others have closed their doors.  These closed Halls, which were once a center of the community, have become relics and symbols of days long past in some towns and villages.   This is particularly true in the community I grew up in.  For years, my family and I have driven past an old, closed, decaying Grange Hall that stood like a ghost near the center of the village.  It wasn’t until recently, that I knew what that building stood for and the importance of the Grange within the community, especially in the late 19^th and early 20^th century.

The legacy of the Grange lives on however, even if it may be part of rural American society that is partially forgotten. Founded in the late 1800s, the Grange focused on rural life and the business of agriculture.  Many public policies, posts and institutions that we perhaps take for granted were born out of the Grange movement.  These include food cooperatives, rural mail delivery, mutual fire, life and liability insurance for farmers, a State Railroad Commission and a State Dairy Commissioner.   Despite all of their great achievements, perhaps one of the greatest successes of the Grange was a rural brotherhood of men AND women.  Initially suggested as a men’s institution, it was Miss Caroline A. Hall of Boston who suggested that women have equal membership in the fraternity.   

Baugnet’s photos are an important record of these local Grange Halls, recording their traditions, important rituals and furnishings. 

Included in the collection is a photograph documenting the mural of Otsego Lake at the Pierstown Grange No 793 in Cooperstown created for a “dramatic association” performance in the early part of the 20^th century.   The mural has withstood decades of time, and is a prominent feature in the Main Hall.

Fellowship was an important aspect of The Grange.  Most weekly meetings were preceded or followed by a meal and time for members of the agricultural community to gather together. The significance of this time is evidenced in the number of fellowship hall photographs in this collection, and the focus on these spaces.  The following photo shows the kitchen pass-through cupboard at the Fly Creek Grange No 844.

Grangers incorporated music into their meetings, and had a specific office for the “Musician,” as well as a Grange song book.  This piano detail from the Springfield Grange No 1523 celebrates that aspect and practice.

Finally, like all fraternal organizations the Grange had its own officers and rituals.  One common thread throughout this collection are the images of stations for the various officers.  The stations were often ornamented with staves which were adorned with decorative finials.  These finials held meaning to the Grangers, represented various attributes of the society and were symbols of the various offices.  This station arrangement at the Westville Grange No 540 speaks to the ritual.

The creation, inception and record of the Grange are a fascinating part of America’s rural history, and thankfully one that continues in many rural communities throughout the state and country.  

Images Above:

Wharton Valley Grange No 991 - Exterior View, Andy Baugnet, 2001. F0005.2011(49). Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

Pierstown Grange No. 793 - Main Hall, Andy Baugnet, 2000. F0005.2011(02). Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

Fly Creek Grange No. 844 - Kitchen Pass Through, Andy Baugnet, 2000.  F0005.2011(20). Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

Springfield Grange No. 1523 - Piano Detail. Andy Baugnet, 2001. F0005.2011(29). Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

Westville Grange No 540 - Rear of Main Hall, Andy Baugnet, 2002. F0005.2011(35). Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

Maple Sugaring During a Full Sap Moon

By: Christina Ely, Registrar, Plowline: Images of Rural New York

Maple sugaring, an agricultural endeavor localized to the Northeastern part of North America, goes back centuries. It is well known that the Colonists learned maple sugaring from the Native Americans who had boiled maple sap into syrup and sugar for so long that legends about how it came to be had been created. They also created two festivals celebrating maple sugaring, and had a “Sap Moon” also known as the “Maple Moon” or “Sugar Moon.”


Like ice harvesting, which I blogged about earlier this year, maple sugaring was an activity which farmers traditionally took part in each year. It was a sure sign that Spring was on its way to the Northeast. As the days became warm, but nights went below freezing the sugary sap would start to “run,” and farmers would race to gather the sap before the season’s abrupt end. The purpose of production has changed over time from the creation of a product of necessity (maple sugar) to a product of luxury (maple syrup). In the later part of the 1700s through much of the 1800s it was the production of maple sugar that was popular and useful, not maple syrup, which would spoil more quickly.


In the early, early days of production, people would use the “boxing” technique, cutting a diagonal or “V”-shaped gash in the sugar maple and then insert a reed or concave piece of bark with a wood trough or bucket beneath it to catch the dripping sap. This gave way to the use of wooden spiles around 1810, which were replaced by metal spiles invented during the Civil War. Metal buckets came some years later, with an introduction as late as 1875.

By 1850, boiling down sap moved into its own building. The “sugar shack” or “sugarhouse” began cropping up on farms and in sugarbushes across the Northeast.  

By 1959, metal buckets were beginning to be replaced by plastic tubing which proved to have greater efficiency as it could be directly connected to a large collecting tank in the sugarbush or to the sugar shack directly-saving a lot of time and labor.

In the late 1800s, boiling the sap became more efficient with the invention and manufacture of the evaporator.   The photo below shows the large and small evaporators at Yancy’s Sugarbush in Croghan, New York.  These evaporators were purchased in the 1920s by Andrew Yancey (2^nd generation family owner) and are still in use at Yancey’s Sugarbush today.  They are fueled by wood cut from the Sugarbush

Along the way, some producers stopped using horses and sleigh to collect their sap from the sugarbush, and began to use a more modern means of collecting.  Even today, some producers insist that the use of a team of horses and sleigh or wagon is the best means for collection out in the sugarbush –  an example being the two teams of horses used at Yancey’s Sugarbush today.  A  romantic reminder for some, reminiscent of days gone by.

Join us during the “full sap moon” and celebrate the end of winter each Sunday in March for our annual Sugaring Off event from 9am – 2 pm and enjoy pancakes, maple syrup and traditional maple sugaring activities.

To view more images of maple sugaring from the early 1950s through the early 1970s visit Plowline: Images of Rural New York, one of our new collection websites.

Images from top to bottom:
Maple Sugaring in Lewis County, NY, 1950. Dante Tranquille. Photographic Negative. H 2.25” x W 2.25”, F0001.2010(069)j.
Maple Sugaring in Lewis County, NY, 1950. Dante Tranquille. Photographic Negative. H 2.25” x W 2.25”, F0001.2010(069)aa.
Maple Sugaring, ca. 1965. Dante Tranquille. Photographic Negative. 35mm, F0001.2010(134)nn.
Yancey’s Sugarbush, 1972. Dante Tranquille. Photographic Negative. 35mm, F0001.2010(127)d.
Maple Sugaring in Lewis County, NY, 1950. Dante Tranquille. Photographic Negative. H 2.25” x 2.25”, F0001.2010(069)c.

New York Winters: The Fun and Foils of Snow

By: Christina Ely, Registrar for Plowline: Images of Rural New York
In a small way, I think that I moved north just in time.  That may sound a bit odd, so let me explain.  In May I moved back to Upstate New York, having lived in Southcoast Massachusetts and in New Jersey for the last nine years.   While living in both places, I really can’t say I experienced more than a handful of snowstorms on par with those experienced annually in Upstate New York.  I will admit though that I did get accustomed to school or work closing each time a few inches or flurries fell or sometimes when snow was simply forecasted!   So, needless to say, getting accustomed to a fifty mile round-trip commute and winter driving again has been a little bit of a learning curve for me this winter.  Given the number of winter storms, whether Nor’esters or Blizzards this year that have hit the areas where I formerly lived – I do think that I moved at the right time.  For this year anyhow.  But, I know that even though we have been fortunate that the coastal storms didn’t track more inland and all that record snow didn’t fall on us…we well know Central New York sees and has seen its fair share of the white stuff.  Evidence of this can be seen in images from the Plowline: Images of Rural New York collection.   I would like to share with you a couple images that I like (and some that I find a bit scary) from this collection.

First of all, I wouldn’t want something like this happening to me:

Do you see that little black speck (in the photo above) to the left of center? Yes, that is a nearly buried car!

The above photo seems more like what I remember as far as upstate winters when I was a child growing up in Washington County.  I can remember snow banks almost this high along my grandparent’s long driveway-they lived at one of the highest points in the town.   I especially remember driving my sister back to SUNY Oswego with my Father, getting to Fulton and seeing walls of snow like this on either side of the road. My sister and I didn’t think it was so funny, but my Father couldn’t stop laughing at my sister’s “good fortune” and choice of school.

Snow can also mean a lot of work, regardless of age:

Aside from the not so fun and hazardous side of snowstorms, some fun lies in them too.

And of course, it does give a serene and tranquil look to the landscape, no matter where you live.

Images above, in order of appearance:

Snowstorm in Oneida County, NY, 1947.  Dante Tranquillle.  Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0001.2010(165)j.
Winter Scene with Snow Plow, 1969.  Dante Tranquille. Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0001.2010(051)b
The Dezemos Shoveling Snow, ca. 1940-1945.  Photographer unidentified.  Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0006.2010(168).
George Dezemo on the Farmall H, Date and Photographer unidentified.  Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0006.2010(076).
Maple Sugaring in Lewis County, NY, 1950.  Dante Tranquille. Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0001.2010(069)dd
Haymarket, New York, Date unidentified. Dante Tranquille. Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0001.2010(182).

Ice Harvesting in our Backyard

By: Christina Ely, Registrar for Plowline: Images of Rural New York


Since first cataloging images of ice harvesting at Millers Mills last May, I have many times returned to the images for another look. For whatever reason, the photos captivated me – soon becoming some of my favorite images in the Dante Tranquille Collection on Plowline: Images of Rural New York.

 
The tradition of ice cutting and harvesting beckons back to the early 1800s, and a time when people began to find ways to keep meats, dairy and produce fresh for longer periods of time. Before that time, Americans often stored their perishable foodstuffs in deep wells, springs or storage cellars, or opted for salting or drying their meat. In the early part of the 19th century, ice houses began cropping up on family farms where ponds or lakes were present or nearby. Ice harvesting became a community affair taking place in “good ice-makin’ weather” during January and February, at which time the entire community would work to fill everyone’s ice houses in a matter of four to six weeks. Farmers gathered up their axes, saws, ice hooks, sleighs and teams of horses to join in the effort.

Ice harvesting is not an overly complicated process, requiring as few or as many different tools as desired. The harvester could use as few as three or four tools, however, over the course of time around sixty tools were invented to help in the process.

So, how complicated is ice harvesting? Here is an illustrated look at ice harvesting with photos from Millers Mills taken in 1958.
Snow was usually removed from the ice with a horse-drawn scraper.

A hole was then bored in the ice and the depth of the ice measured.  In early times, axes and saws were employed to cut through the scored ice-later giving way to markers and ice plows with teeth, each tooth progressively longer than the one before it that carved a straight line in the ice.  The ice was marked out like a grid, and then cut through with a four to five foot ice saw or was broken apart with a bar.

Hooks, tongs or a horse rigged to the block, were used to extract the block of ice from the water. 

Ice blocks were then slid across the ice and moved to a sleigh, wagon or other mode of transportation and taken to the ice house where they were unloaded using perhaps a tool or two, human muscle and a plank.

Would you like to try ice harvesting yourself? Then join in on a traditional ice harvest in Millers Mills located in West Winfield, New York on Sunday, February 13, 2011 starting at 11 am. This is a long standing tradition there, dating back so many years that no one actually knows when it even began as a community winter event. Traditional tools and methods are used right down to the team of horses and sleigh. Only one modern convenience is used and that is the gas powered machine used to score the ice the day before to the harvest. The harvest is a fundraiser sponsored by Grange #581. What do they do with the 300-500 blocks of ice? They store it in the ice house until the summer when they make ice cream for the town’s Ice Cream Social. A lot of work, but for a sweet reward!

To see more photos of the 1958 Ice Harvest in Millers Mills visit Plowline: Images of Rural New York.


Images above in order of appearance:
 Scraping.  Illustration from Scribner's Monthly, 1875
Ice Cutting. Millers Mills, 1958. Dante Tranquille. Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.F0001.2010(008)f.
Ice Harvesting, 1958. Dante Tranquille.  Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0001.2010(103)a.
Ice Cutting. Millers Mills, 1958. Dante Tranquille. Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0001.2010(008)b.
Ice Cutting. Millers Mills, 1958. Dante Tranquille. Plowline: Images of Rural New York, The Farmers’ Museum, Cooperstown, NY.  F0001.2010(008)g.