Overview
Stories of the Land features more than 70 public radio and television programs broadcast over 65 years – from 1954 to 2019 – that explore many aspects of agricultural life from the perspectives of diverse populations and locales in more than 30 states throughout the U.S. Links to more than 110 additional related programs also are included. The exhibit was curated by Mariah E. Marsden, a 2022 Library of Congress Junior Fellow, folklorist, and Ph.D., Ohio State University. We are grateful to Christine Fugate, Ariana Gerstein, Chad Heartwood, Shaena Mallett Heartwood, Monteith McCollum, Asad Muhammad, and to an anonymous reviewer for their help.
How to Navigate the Exhibit
After a brief introductory section on U.S. agricultural history in the twentieth century, this exhibit is divided into pages called Anchors: broad, abstract concepts that pull together stories from a wide range of agricultural histories and practices. This thematic arrangement highlights ways the stories intersect and diverge by drawing the broadcasts into conversation with one another. The anchors assembled here—Land, Work, Environment, Culture, Practice, and Politics—explore different dimensions of agricultural experience across a diverse array of public broadcasting programs, often centering shared issues of disenfranchisement, visibility, mobilization, and loss. Each anchor has additional concepts nested beneath it to highlight certain enduring issues. Particular broadcasts have been featured and are included in the interactive map at the top of this page, while others are listed on the anchor pages for further exploration.
As you go through the pages, you’ll notice linked words that serve as pathways to other anchors in the exhibit, highlighting how these topics are interconnected. Explore them as you consider the conceptual network brought to light through these shared ideas — there’s not a single path through the exhibit. Feel free to wander.
Agriculture in the Twentieth Century: A Brief Introduction
By the 1900s, agricultural practice in the United States was undergoing a transformation. The last half of the nineteenth century saw the formation of land grant colleges and universities dedicated to agricultural advancement and research. The period also marked the beginning of the sharecropping system under which many formerly enslaved people and poor whites worked as tenants under contract on large farm properties with little hope for economic advancement or acquiring their own land due to the oppressive credit system that also developed.1 Contract farming, often identified as characteristic of developing nations, later would dominate the U.S. pork and chicken industries.2 This dichotomy of progress and repression carried over into the next century as industrial agriculture became a force to be reckoned with and farming movements such as the Grange gained political clout as they collectively explored the potential of new advancements in technology and scientific study.