M.L. Wilson Agricultural Photographs Collection, 1901-1945

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Wilson, M. L. (Milburn Lincoln), 1885-1969
Title
M.L. Wilson Agricultural Photographs Collection
Dates
1901-1945
Quantity
14.5 linear feet
Collection Number
Collection 2581, MtBC, us (collection)
Summary
The Agriculture Photograph collection includes photographs, nitrate negatives, safety negatives, and glass plate negatives created by or collected by M.L. Wilson. Images in this collection pertain to agricultural subjects and projects studied 1901 to 1945 at Montana State College. 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.
Repository
Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections
Montana State University-Bozeman Library
Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT
59717-3320
Telephone: 4069944242
Fax: 4069942851
Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Languages
English

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

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 DescriptionReturn to Top

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.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Alternative Forms Available

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 online database may be viewed here.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Acquisition Information

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.

Processing Note

This collection was processed 2014 February 18

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

Container(s) Description
Photographs
Box/Folder
1/1 #1-17
1/2 #22-40
1/3 #41-60
1/4 #61-80
1/5 #81-100
1/6 #101-120
1/7 #122-140
1/8 #141-176
1/9 #182-199
1/10 #203-220
1/11 #221-240
1/12 #242-260
1/13 #261-296
1/14 #600-620b
1/15 #621a-640
1/16 #641-660b
1/17 #661a-680
1/18 #681-700
1/19 #700Ya-720
1/20 #721a-740
1/21 #741-760
1/22 #761a-780
1/23 #781-800
1/24 #801a-820
1/25 #821a-840
1/26 #841a-860
1/27 #861-880
2/1 #881b-900b
2/2 #902-920
2/3 #922-940
2/4 #941-960
2/5 #961-980
2/6 #981-1000c
2/7 #1001a-1020
2/8 #1021a-1040f
2/9 #1041-1060
2/10 #1061-1080
2/11 #1081-1100
2/12 #1101-1120
2/13 #1121-1140
2/14 #1141-1180b
2/15 #1181-1199
2/16 #1204-1220
2/17 #1221a-1240
2/18 #1241-1260i
2/19 #1261-1266e
2/20 #1300a-1318
2/21 #1321-1339b
2/22 #1341-1368
2/23 #1371-1433
2/24 #1441-1478b
2/25 #1483-1535
2/26 #1541-1597
3/1 #1609-1680
3/2 #1681-1700
3/3 #1701-1720
3/4 #1721-1736
3/5 #1742a-1760
3/6 #1761-1781
3/7 #1782-1799
3/8 #1801-1820
3/9 #1821-1837
3/10 #1864-2047a
3/11 #2051b-2064b
3/12 #2095-2120
3/13 #2122-2146
3/14 #2150-2167
3/15 #2182-2211
3/16 #2212-2280
3/17 #2288-2406
3/18 #2518-2703
3/19 #2710-2720
3/20 #2721-2749b
3/21 #2752-2765
3/22 #2766-2820
3/23 #2821-2834
3/24 #2841-2890
3/25 #2891-2920
3/26 #2921-2943e
3/27 #2945-2970c
3/28 #2971b-2990
3/29 #2992-3019
2/30 #3021-3032f
3/31 #3033c-3050b
3/32 #3051b-3060a
3/33 #3061b-3083f
3/34 #3084c-3097
3/35 #3101-3113
3/36 #3114a-3130a
4/1 #3131a-3150
4/2 #3151a-3170b
4/3 #311b-3198b
4/4 #3201-3220
4/5 #3221-3245
4/6 #3246-3262b
4/7 #3263b-3308
4/8 #3311-3330
4/9 #3331-3360
4/10 #3361-3380
4/11 #4011a-4029
4/12 #4032-4057b
4/13 #4062-4153a
4/14 #4154a-4170
4/15 #4171-4191a
4/16 #4203e-4230b
4/17 #4232-4255f
4/18 #4256b-4265b
4/19 #4266-4280b
4/20 #4281a-4300
4/21 #4301a-4320b
4/22 #4321b-4350
4/23 #4351b-4380
4/24 #4381-4394
4/25 #4395-4405
4/26 #4407-4420b
4/27 #4421-4520c
5/1 #4521b-4550A
5/2 #4552a-4599
5/3 #4601b-4620a
5/4 #4621-4639D
5/5 #4641A-4670a
5/6 #4680B-4730b
5/7 #4731a-4775
5/8 #4785a-4825
5/9 #4826-4840b
5/10 #4850-4870e
5/11 #4871-4880a
5/12 #4881-4905
5/13 #4906-4927
5/14 #4961-5010
5/15 #5011-5030a
5/16 #5031a-5050
5/17 #5051-5129
5/18 #5130-5170a
5/19 #5172-5199
5/20 #5202-5229
5/21 #5230-5259
5/22 #5264-5300
5/23 #5301-5329
5/24 #5330-5359
5/25 #5415-5440
5/26 #5441-5455
6/1 #5457-5471
6/2 #5475-5510
6/3 #5512-5534
6/4 #5535-5550
6/5 #5555-5600
6/6 #5601-5645
6/7 #5646-5671
6/8 #5674-5697
6/9 #5697-5710
6/10 #5711-5720
6/11 #5721-5742
6/12 #5743-5753
6/13 #5754-5781
6/14 #5782-5792
7/1 #5793-5808
7/2 #5809-5827
7/3 #5828-5843
7/4 #5844-5850-49
7/5 #5851-5865
8/1 #5866-5880
8/2 #5881-5895
8/3 #5896-5910
8/4 #5911-5938
8/5 #5945-5960
8/6 #5961-5975
9/1 #5976-5999
9/2 #6001-6015
9/3 #6016-6030
9/4 #6031-6046
9/5 #6047-6073
9/6 #6074-6089b
10/1 #6090-6110
10/2 #6111-6125
10/3 #6126-6144
10/4 #6145-6156
10/5 #6157-6170
11/1 #6171-6185
11/2 #6186-6221
11/3 #6222-6251b
11/4 #6252-6264
11/5 #6265-6280
11/6 #6281-6293
12/1 #6294-6322
12/2 #6323-6360
12/3 #6361-6375
12/4 #6376-6396
12/5 #6402-6412
12/6 #6413-6442
12/7 #6443-6457
12/8 #6459-6483
13/1 #6484-6505
13/2 #6506-6531
13/3 #6532-6549
13/4 #6550-6590
13/5 #6591-6623
13/6 #6625-6640
13/7 #6641-6653
14/1 #6654-6670
14/2 #6671-6694
14/3 #6695-6710
14/4 #6711-6735
14/5 #6746-6778
14/6 #6780-6794
14/7 #6795-6808
15/1 #6810-6825
15/2 #6826a-6845
15/3 #6846-6856
15/4 #6857-6875
15/5 #6876-6890
15/6 #6891-6893
15/7 #6916-6939
15/8 #6941-6965
15/9 #6966-6980
15/10 #6981-7001
15/11 #7002-7016b
16/1 #7017-1-7018-23
16/2 #7019-4-7021-9
16/3 #7022-23-7024-145
16/4 #7025-2-7026-13
16/5 #7027-8-7030-8
16/6 #7032-10-7035-12
16/7 #7038-12-7050-8
16/8 #7051-3-7057-41
16/9 #7059-12-7069-109
16/10 #7070a-7083
16/11 #7198
Safety Negatives
Box
17 #1-1471b
18 #1471d-1850
19 #1851-2200
20 #2201-2917
21 #2918-3267
22 #2918-3267
23 #4203a-4589
24 #4552b-9428m
Nitrate Negatives
Box
25 #14a-2539
26 #2541-4254b
27 #4255a-4657d
28 #4658a-4882
29 #4898b-5441
30 #5442-6587
31 #6608-9438i
Glass Plate Negatives
Box
32 #252-1339b
33 #1340a-1431
34 #1432-2736a
35 #2738b-7021-6
36 #7021-7-7022-93
37 #7022-94-7026-10
38 #7026-10-7032-26
39 #7032-27-7041-02
40 #7041-03-7049-02
41 #7049-04-7058-47
42 #7058-48-7063-39
43 #7063-40-7066-32
44 #7066-33-7069-25
45 #7069-26-7123

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top