Ag Innovation on Display at Smithsonian
The ingenuity of the American farmer and the agriculture industry is celebrated in an exhibit that opened last week at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
The American Enterprise exhibit traces the country’s development from a dependent agricultural nation to one of the world’s most vibrant economies.
The story of the evolution of American business is broader than agriculture and manufacturing, but both industries are spotlighted in the exhibit as economic pillars.
Among highlights:
- A 1918 Fordson tractor commands space at the center of the exhibit. It represents the shift to modern farming and production that positioned American ag to supply food to the world.
- The Farming Challenge invites visitors to climb into the cab of a simulated tractor and make choices about how to irrigate crops and when to invest in new equipment.
- Eli Whitney’s cotton gin
- Barbara McClintock’s microscope
- Stanley Cohen’s recombinant DNA research notebook
The exhibit “demonstrates the development in agriculture that ranges from machines that increased productivity to science that gave insight to the genetic structure of plants,” the announcement from the Smithsonian said.
To learn more about the exhibit, go to FarmEquip.org/aghistory. S