Collection 2581 - M.L. Wilson Agricultural Photographs Collection, 1901-1945
Creator: Wilson, M. L. (Milburn Lincoln), 1885-1969
Provenance Note: The Agricultural Photographs Collection was transferred to Special Collections from the Montana State University Archives in 1984. In the following years the photographs were partially duplicated and indexed with the assistance of a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Historical Note: Milburn Lincoln Wilson was born in Atlantic, Iowa on 23 October 1885, the son of John Wesley and Mary E. (Magee) Wilson. He received a B.S.A. from Iowa State College, Ames, in 1907 and his M.S. in agricultural economics and rural sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1920. He began his career as a farmer in 1907. He served as Assistant State Agronomist at Montana State College, Bozeman, 1910-12; County Agent in Custer County, Montana, 1912-14; Montana State Extension Agent Leader, 1914-22; and an extension agricultural economist at Montana State College, 1922-24. Between 1924 and 1926 he took charge of the U.S.D.A. division of farm management and cost accounting. During his stint as professor and head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at Montana State College, 1926-33, he provided consultation on large-scale wheat farming in the U.S.S.R., 1929. From May 16 to September 1, 1933, Wilson served as the Chief Wheat Production Secretary in the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and then moved on to the directorship of the Division of Subsistence Homesteads in the Department of the Interior until June 30, 1934. In 1934, Wilson was appointed the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and in 1937 the Undersecretary of Agriculture until 1 February 1940 when he became the Director of Extension Work at U.S.D.A. While Director, he also filled in as the Chief of Nutrition Programs and in the Production and Marketing Administration between 1943 and 1949. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Farm Economic Association (president, 1925), Epsilon Sigma Phi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Alpha Zeta. He was also a Unitarian and belonged to the Cosmos club. His writings include Farm Relief and the Domestic Allotment Plan (1933) and Democracy Has Roots (1939). Married on December 17, 1913 to Ida Morse from Cromwell, Minnesota, Wilson made his home in Washington, D.C. where he died in October 1969 and is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.
During the agricultural depression that followed WWI, Wilson and many other members of his department studied why some farmers prospered while so many others failed. During the course of their investigations they took thousands of photographs to illustrate their findings. Most of these photographs recorded efficient or innovated practices that helped some farmers survive, and the farming methods frrom more humid regions, inappropriate for conditions in Montana, that caused others to fail. Other photographs simply recorded what life was like on the northern Great Plains during the 1920s.
Content Description Note: The Agriculture Photograph collection includes photographs, nitrate negatives, safety negatives, and glass plate negatives created by or collected by M.L. Wilson. The photographs are sequentially numbered. Most of the negatives in this collection correspond to print images; not all of the negatives were reproduced as print images. Many of the photographs and negatives contain alphabetic or numerical extensions to distinguish separate images. Some images were removed from Accession 12001, the MSU Historical Photographs Collection, section PA3.1, on January 11, 1973, and transferred to a collection identified as PAA (Picture Archive Agriculture) by D.E. Horn. Images were renumbered PAA 5675 to 6998.
Images in this collection pertain to agricultural subjects and projects studied 1901 to 1945 at Montana State College. Notations on the print images are in English as well as shorthand. Image subject include: alfalfa, barley, clover, corn, grain, grass, wheat, sunflowers, thistles, and vegetables. Other subjects include: demonstration and field days, experiment stations, farm machinery, farmsteads, dryland farming, tillage, harvesting, erosion, livestock, rural life in Montana, and pot tests. Of particular interest are numerous images of "big hitch" teams, horse-drawn implements using eight or more teams of draft animals for power. For all the images in this collection the titles were provided by Wilson either in either his index or on the photograph itself. The photographs have been numerically arranged regardless of their content or subject.
Automated access: The photographs and negatives represented in the following inventory are searchable by means of an automated database. Subject and geographic terms were assigned according to the Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Materials, and the documentation made, as well as the image number assigned, by Wilson in its index or on the photograph itself. The database is available here.
Contents
Photographs
- Box 1
- 1. #1-17
- 2. #22-40
- 3. #41-60
- 4. #61-80
- 5. #81-100
- 6. #101-120
- 7. #122-140
- 8. #141-176
- 9. #182-199
- 10. #203-220
- 11. #221-240
- 12. #242-260
- 13. #261-296
- 14. #600-620b
- 15. #621a-640
- 16. #641-660b
- 17. #661a-680
- 18. #681-700
- 19. #700Ya-720
- 20. #721a-740
- 21. #741-760
- 22. #761a-780
- 23. #781-800
- 24. #801a-820
- 25. #821a-840
- 26. #841a-860
- 27. #861-880
- Box 2
- 1. #881b-900b
- 2. #902-920
- 3. #922-940
- 4. #941-960
- 5. #961-980
- 6. #981-1000c
- 7. #1001a-1020
- 8. #1021a-1040f
- 9. #1041-1060
- 10. #1061-1080
- 11. #1081-1100
- 12. #1101-1120
- 13. #1121-1140
- 14. #1141-1180b
- 15. #1181-1199
- 16. #1204-1220
- 17. #1221a-1240
- 18. #1241-1260i
- 19. #1261-1266e
- 20. #1300a-1318
- 21. #1321-1339b
- 22. #1341-1368
- 23. #1371-1433
- 24. #1441-1478b
- 25. #1483-1535
- 26. #1541-1597
- Box 3
- 1. #1609-1680
- 2. #1681-1700
- 3. #1701-1720
- 4. #1721-1736
- 5. #1742a-1760
- 6. #1761-1781
- 7. #1782-1799
- 8. #1801-1820
- 9. #1821-1837
- 10. #1864-2047a
- 11. #2051b-2064b
- 12. #2095-2120
- 13. #2122-2146
- 14. #2150-2167
- 15. #2182-2211
- 16. #2212-2280
- 17. #2288-2406
- 18. #2518-2703
- 19. #2710-2720
- 20. #2721-2749b
- 21. #2752-2765
- 22. #2766-2820
- 23. #2821-2834
- 24. #2841-2890
- 25. #2891-2920
- 26. #2921-2943e
- 27. #2945-2970c
- 28. #2971b-2990
- 29. #2992-3019
- 30. #3021-3032f
- 31. #3033c-3050b
- 32. #3051b-3060a
- 33. #3061b-3083f
- 34. #3084c-3097
- 35. #3101-3113
- 36. #3114a-3130a
- Box 4
- 1. #3131a-3150
- 2. #3151a-3170b
- 3. #311b-3198b
- 4. #3201-3220
- 5. #3221-3245
- 6. #3246-3262b
- 7. #3263b-3308
- 8. #3311-3330
- 9. #3331-3360
- 10. #3361-3380
- 11. #4011a-4029
- 12. #4032-4057b
- 13. #4062-4153a
- 14. #4154a-4170
- 15. #4171-4191a
- 16. #4203e-4230b
- 17. #4232-4255f
- 18. #4256b-4265b
- 19. #4266-4280b
- 20. #4281a-4300
- 21. #4301a-4320b
- 22. #4321b-4350
- 23. #4351b-4380
- 24. #4381-4394
- 25. #4395-4405
- 26. #4407-4420b
- 27. #4421-4520c
- Box 5
- 1. #4521b-4550A
- 2. #4552a-4599
- 3. #4601b-4620a
- 4. #4621-4639D
- 5. #4641A-4670a
- 6. #4680B-4730b
- 7. #4731a-4775
- 8. #4785a-4825
- 9. #4826-4840b
- 10. #4850-4870e
- 11. #4871-4880a
- 12. #4881-4905
- 13. #4906-4927
- 14. #4961-5010
- 15. #5011-5030a
- 16. #5031a-5050
- 17. #5051-5129
- 18. #5130-5170a
- 19. #5172-5199
- 20. #5202-5229
- 21. #5230-5259
- 22. #5264-5300
- 23. #5301-5329
- 24. #5330-5359
- 25. #5415-5440
- 26. #5441-5455
- Box 6
- 1. #5457-5471
- 2. #5475-5510
- 3. #5512-5534
- 4. #5535-5550
- 5. #5555-5600
- 6. #5601-5645
- 7. #5646-5671
- 8. #5674-5697
- 9. #5697-5710
- 10. #5711-5720
- 11. #5721-5742
- 12. #5743-5753
- 13. #5754-5781
- 14. #5782-5792
- Box 7
- 1. #5793-5808
- 2. #5809-5827
- 3. #5828-5843
- 4. #5844-5850-49
- 5. #5851-5865
- Box 8
- 1. #5866-5880
- 2. #5881-5895
- 3. #5896-5910
- 4. #5911-5938
- 5. #5945-5960
- 6. #5961-5975
- Box 9
- 1. #5976-5999
- 2. #6001-6015
- 3. #6016-6030
- 4. #6031-6046
- 5. #6047-6073
- 6. #6074-6089b
- Box 10
- 1. #6090-6110
- 2. #6111-6125
- 3. #6126-6144
- 4. #6145-6156
- 5. #6157-6170
- Box 11
- 1. #6171-6185
- 2. #6186-6221
- 3. #6222-6251b
- 4. #6252-6264
- 5. #6265-6280
- 6. #6281-6293
- Box 12
- 1. #6294-6322
- 2. #6323-6360
- 3. #6361-6375
- 4. #6376-6396
- 5. #6402-6412
- 6. #6413-6442
- 7. #6443-6457
- 8. #6459-6483
- Box 13
- 1. #6484-6505
- 2. #6506-6531
- 3. #6532-6549
- 4. #6550-6590
- 5. #6591-6623
- 6. #6625-6640
- 7. #6641-6653
- Box 14
- 1. #6654-6670
- 2. #6671-6694
- 3. #6695-6710
- 4. #6711-6735
- 5. #6746-6778
- 6. #6780-6794
- 7. #6795-6808
- Box 15
- 1. #6810-6825
- 2. #6826a-6845
- 3. #6846-6856
- 4. #6857-6875
- 5. #6876-6890
- 6. #6891-6893
- 7. #6916-6939
- 8. #6941-6965
- 9. #6966-6980
- 10. #6981-7001
- 11. #7002-7016b
- Box 16
- 1. #7017-1-7018-23
- 2. #7019-4-7021-9
- 3. #7022-23-7024-145
- 4. #7025-2-7026-13
- 5. #7027-8-7030-8
- 6. #7032-10-7035-12
- 7. #7038-12-7050-8
- 8. #7051-3-7057-41
- 9. #7059-12-7069-109
- 10. #7070a-7083
- 11. #7198
Safety Negatives
- Box 17
- #1 - 1471b
- Box 18
- #1471d - 1850
- Box 19
- #1851 - 2200
- Box 20
- #2201 - 2917
- Box 21
- #2918 - 3267
- Box 22
- #2918 - 3267
- Box 23
- #4203a - 4589
- Box 24
- #4552b - 9428m
Nitrate Negatives
- Box 25
- #14a - 2539
- Box 26
- #2541 - 4254b
- Box 27
- #4255a - 4657d
- Box 28
- #4658a - 4882
- Box 29
- #4898b - 5441
- Box 30
- #5442 - 6587
- Box 31
- #6608 - 9438i
Glass Plate Negatives
- Box 32
- #252 - 1339b
- Box 33
- #1340a - 1431
- Box 34
- #1432 - 2736a
- Box 35
- #2738b - 7021-6
- Box 36
- #7021-7 - 7022-93
- Box 37
- #7022-94 - 7026-10
- Box 38
- #7026-10 - 7032-26
- Box 39
- #7032-27 - 7041-02
- Box 40
- #7041-03 - 7049-02
- Box 41
- #7049-04 - 7058-47
- Box 42
- #7058-48 - 7063-39
- Box 43
- #7063-40 - 7066-32
- Box 44
- #7066-33 - 7069-25
- Box 45
- #7069-26 - 7123
Updated: 2014 February 18