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Story Bibliography
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Agriculture and Rural Life Bibliography
Further Reading

Alger, Hugh Wesley. "Crops and Chores: Pennsylvania Farm Life in the 1890’s." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (1991): 367-410.

Alger's month by month account of life on his parents" farm near North Orwell, Bradford County.

Barron, Hal S. Mixed Harvest: The Second Great Transformation in the Rural North, 1870-1930. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1997.

Interprets the impact of urbanization, consumerism, and centralization of state power on rural people.

Bezilla, Michael. The College of Agriculture at Penn State: A Tradition of Excellence. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1987.

Well-crafted and lavishly illustrated narrative of the founding, growth, and development of what was once called Pennsylvania's "Farmers" High School."

Borie, Beauveau. Farming and Folk Society: Threshing Among the Pennsylvania Germans . Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1986.

Interesting history of processing wheat in the state and of the different tools used by early farmers.

Brenckman, Fred. History of the Pennsylvania State Grange . Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania State Grange, 1949.

The definitive story of the grange movement in the Keystone State.

Cupper, Dan. Seventy-Fifth Farm Show: A History of Pennsylvania's Annual Agricultural Exposition. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1991.

Very readable history of one of the nation's largest farm shows.

Danbom, David. Born in the Country, a History of Rural America. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.

This broad survey of farm people from America and Europe before Columbus to the late twentieth century integrates social, political, and economic history.

Danhof, Clarence. Change in Agriculture: The Northern United States, 1820-1870. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969.

Focuses chiefly on economic and technological innovations.

Demaree, Albert Lowther. The American Agricultural Press, 1819-1860. Philadelphia, PA: Porcupine Press, reprint, 1974.

This history of farm journals and newspapers in the U. S., is valuable for understanding the concerns and interests of farmers and their families in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Ensminger, Robert F. The Pennsylvania Barn: Its Origin, Evolution, and Distribution in North America.. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992..

First comprehensive history of the Pennsylvania Barn from its origins in Switzerland through its distribution in the United States.

Fegley, H. Winslow. Farming, Always Farming: A photographic essay of rural Pennsylvania German land and life. Birdsboro, PA: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1987.

A comprehensive collection of farming photographs depicting the farming industry of the rural Pennsylvania Dutch society, selected from the collection of the Schwenkfelder Library, Pennsburg, Pennsylvania.

Fletcher, Stevenson Whitcomb. Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life, 1840-1940 . Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1955.

This second volume is just as interesting, and flawed, as the first.

Fletcher, Stevenson Whitcomb. Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life, 1640-1840 . Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission, 1950.

Classic, fascinating, but flawed narrative on the early history of farming in the state.

Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks: Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

A lavishly illustrated biography of Hicks and his paintings that includes paintings of Pennsylvania farms and farm animals in early 1800s.

Fuller, Wayne E. RFD: The Changing Face of Rural America . Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1964.

A solid, well-written history of one of the most remembered innovations in rural America around the turn of the century.

Gates, Paul Wallace. Farmers Age: Agriculture 1815-1860. New York: Rinehart and Winston, 1960.

A readable, authoritative work on American agriculture in the early 1800s.

Haakenson, Bergine and Carol Fairbanks, ed.. Writings of Farm Women 1840-1940: An Anthology. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1990.

In excerpts from diaries, interviews, and letters, farm women from all across America tell stories about their work on farms.

Haney, Wava F. and Jane B. Knowles, ed.. Women and Farming: Changing Roles, Changing Structures. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988.

A major collection of important essays.

Ilisevich, Robert D. Galusha A. Grow: The People's Candidate. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburg Press, 1988.

A well-written and authoritative biography of the father of the Homestead Act.

Jellison, Katherine. Entitled to Power, Farm Women and Technology, 1913-1963. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.

History of farm women's resistance to their re-definition as consumers, and the continued roles they played as producers on farms.

Jensen, Joan. Loosening the Bonds: Mid-Atlantic Farm Women, 1750-1850 . New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1986.

The first major treatment of rural women in the century preceding the American Civil War.

Jensen, Joan. With these Hands: Women Working on the Land. New York: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1981.

Documents with brief but suggestive introductions.

Kline, Ronald. Consumers in the Country, Technology and Social Change in Rural America. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Story of the impact of the automobile, electricity, radio, and telephone in rural America and how farm families adapted to these new technologies.

Koehn, Nancy F. Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgewood to Dell . Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2001.

Lists the influence of various entrepreneurs over the years and includes a section on H. J. Heinz.

Kraft, Herbert C. The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. Newark, NJ: The New Jersey Historical Society, 1988.

A comprehensive look at the some of the first farmers in Pennsylvania whose beans, corn, pumpkins, and squash fed the first European settlers.

Lemon, James T. The Best Poor Man's Country: A Geographical Study of Early Southeastern Pennsylvania . Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972.

Groundbreaking study of agriculture in colonial America.

Levy, Barry. "Tender Plants: Quaker Farmers and Children in the Delaware Valley, 1681-1735." Journal of Family History (Summer 1978).

A very important article on Quaker agriculture and family life in the early colonial period.

Marti, Donald B. Women of the Grange: Mutuality and Sisterhood in Rural America, 1866-1930 . New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

History of rural women's participation in the Grange.

McClelland, Peter D. Sowing Modernity: America's First Agricultural Revolution. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997.

A valuable survey of farming methods and the changes in implements used in the production of grain in the first half of the nineteenth century.

McMurry, Sally. From Sugar Camps to Star Barns: Rural Life and Landscape in a Western Pennsylvania Community . University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 2001.

A history of the rural life and landscape of Somerset County.

McMurry, Sally. Families and Farmhouses in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Details women's role on farms and their efforts in the design and creation of more efficient farm homes.

Pencak, William and Randall Miller, ed.. Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State Historical and Museum Commission, 2002.

This up-to-date history of the state includes good information on agriculture, farmhouse architecture, and Native Americans.

Porter, Valerie. Pigs: A Handbook to the Breeds of the World . Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishing Associates, 1993.

An in-depth history of pigs, filled with illustrations and much information on the story of Pennsylvania's own porker, the Chester White.

Severson, Harlan. Miracle Blessing: Rural Electrification in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Rural Electric Association, 1977.

This is the story of rural electrification in Pennsylvania and how it changed the way of life for thousands of rural families. It includes a number of photographs to illustrate the period.

Shannon, Fred. The Farmer's Last Frontier: Agriculture 1860-1897. New York: Farrar and Reinhart, 1945.

A basic work, a well-written overview.

Shover, John. First Majority, Last Minority, the Transforming of Rural Life in America. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1976.

History of changes in rural life since the mid-1800s.

Stoll, Steven. To Lard the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth-Century America. New York: Hill and Wang, 2002.

A fascinating history of soil depletion and agricultural reformers in the early Republic that focuses on farmers in Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

Upshall, W.H., ed.. History of Fruit Growing and Handling in the United States of America and Canada, 1860 - 1972. Kelowna, BC: Regatta City Press Ltd., 1976.

Written by experts in the field of fruit cultivation and scientists, this book provides the story of fruit growing in each state.

Walbert, David. Garden Spot: Lancaster County, the Old Order Amish, and the Selling of Rural America . New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

An important study of a unique culture, agricultural and rural life and the pressures of modern commercial and suburban development.

Wallace, Paul A.W. Indians In Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1993.

An outstanding history of the different tribes that once called Pennsylvania home.

Weekly, Carolyn. The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999.

Weslager, C. A. The Delaware Indians. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1991.

A well researched and well written study of the Lenape from earliest times through the twentieth century.

Wik, Reynold M. Steam Power on the American Farm. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1953.

A fascinating history of the use of steam engines on American farms.


Web Guide

"Pennsylvania County Histories and Pennsylvania Biographies," http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/pahist.htm

A rich collection of county, township, and borough histories.

 "Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project" http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pennsylvania%...

This award-winning website includes narrative histories describing the evolution of different farming systems around the state, historic census data, a field guide to historic farm buildings and landscapes, and bibliographic resources.

Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University, The Core Historical Literature of Agriculture http://chla.library.cornell.edu/

Impressive electronic collection of agricultural texts from the early 1800s through the mid 1900s, maintained by Cornell University's Mann Library

Association for Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums http://www.alhfam.org/index.php

With links to more than 80 international living history sites, including sites in Pennsylvania.

Columbia County Historical and Genealogical Society http://colcohist-gensoc.org/

Documents and resources on the history of Columbia County, Pennsylvania.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture http://www.agriculture.state.pa.us/

Site contains information on Pennsylvania Century Farm Program and the Pennsylvania Farm schedule.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Farm Show http://www.farmshow.state.pa.us/

Official site of the Pennsylvania State Farm Show contains Farm Show facts and firsts.

Daniel Sidorick, "Food Processing," The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/food-processing/

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, The New Deal Network http://newdeal.feri.org/index.htm

Wonderful resource on the Great Depression and New Deal of the 1930s, with documents on Pennsylvania, materials on rural electrification, and lesson plans for teachers.

Lancaster Farmland Trust http://www.lancasterfarmlandtrust.org/

Site provides statistics on farming in Lancaster County and explains what can be done to help preserve farmland.

Library of Congress, American Memory http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html

Library of Congress American Memory site. Includes documents, photographs, and other images related to agriculture in Pennsylvania.

Living Places, Agriculture in Berks County: 1700-1945 http://www.livingplaces.com/PA/Berks_County_Early_Agriculture.html

Contains a short history of Farming in Berks, 1700-1945.

Marketplace for the Mind: An Agricultural Education Resource http://www.marketplaceforthemind.com/

A unique, educational resource created by The PA Dept. of Agriculture in cooperation with The PA Dept. of Education that includes agricultural educational materials aligned to Pennsylvania's Academic Standards, and useful information on PA Agriculture and Agribusiness.

Minnesota Historical Society, Rural Electrification: Bringing Power to the People http://www.mnhs.org/school/historyday/lessons/rea/index.html

The Minnesota Historical Society's lesson plan on the history of rural electrification, including documents, and text.

Penn State, Pasto Agricultural Museum http://pasto.cas.psu.edu/default.html

Website for Penn State University's Agricultural Museum, includes on-line exhibits and calendars of events.

Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Pennsylvania Agricultural Statistics Service http://www.nass.usda.gov/pa

Includes charts, graphs, and census data on crops, livestock, farms, and other agricultural topics.

Saving the Land that Sustains Us, American Farmland Trust http://www.farmland.org

Site for this national organization dedicated to preserving farmland contains statistics on loss of farmland.

The National Agricultural Library, United States Department of Agriculture http://www.nal.usda.gov/

Includes links to a variety of sites on agricultural history, including U. S. Department of Agriculture, and heirloom vegetables and fruits. (Run by the National Agricultural Library)

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), Landis Valley Museum, A Pennsylvania Dutch Living History Valley http://www.landisvalleymuseum.org

Living history programs that authentically represent the history of agricultural life in Pennsylvania.

Tri-Counties Genealogy and History http://www.joycetice.com/jmtindex.htm

A rich collection of histories, diaries, images, and other resources on the history of Bradford and Tioga Counties.

Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station, Shenandoah Valley Agricultural and Research Station http://www.vaes.vt.edu/

A National Historic Landmark site of Cyrus McCormick's early experimentation along with a pictorial history of harvesting technology.

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