Memories of Life on the Farm

John Calvin Allen, professionally known as J. C., worked as a
photographer for Purdue University from 1909-1952, and operated his own
photography business until his death in 1976. The J. C. Allen photographs
represent a historical account of the transition from pioneer practices to
scientific methodologies in agriculture and rural communities. During this
major transitional period for agriculture, tractors replaced horses, hybrid
corn supplanted open-pollinated corn, and soybeans changed from a novelty crop
to regular rotation on most farms. During this time, purebred animals with
better genetic pedigrees replaced run-of-the-mill livestock, and systematic disease
prevention in cattle, swine, and poultry took place.
Allen's
photographs also document clothing styles, home furnishings, and the items
people thought important as they went about their daily lives. Looking closely
at tractors, livestock, wagons, planters, sprayers, harvesting equipment, and
crops gives one a sense of the changing and fast-paced world of agriculture at that time.
This volume contains over 900 picturesque images, most never-before-seen, of men, women, and children
working on the farm, which remain powerful reminders of life in rural America at the
turn of the twentieth century. As old farmhouses and barns fall victim to
age, Allen photographs are all that remain. While those people and times
no longer exist today, they do remain "alive" because of the preservation of
that history on film. A camera in his hands and an eye for photography allowed Allen to create indelible visual histories that continue to tell
the story of agriculture and rural life from long ago.

Frederick Whitford is an extension
specialist for the Purdue
Cooperative Extension Service
in the College of Agriculture. He received a BS in wildlife management from Louisiana Tech University, and an MS and PhD in entomology from Iowa State University. He has authored
more than 300 research, extension, and regulatory publications, and has delivered
5,000 presentations to a wide array of audiences. Whitford has written five previous books on the history of agriculture for Purdue University and Indiana, all published by Purdue University Press: Scattering the Seeds of Knowledge: The Words and Works of Indiana's Pioneer County Agricultural Agents (2017); Enriching the Hoosier
Farm Family: A Photo History of Indiana's Early County Extension Agents (2016); For the Good of the Farmer: A Biography of John Harrison
Skinner (2013); The Queen of American Agriculture: A Biography of Virginia Claypool
Meredith (2008); and The Grand Old Man of Purdue University and Indiana Agriculture: A Biography of William Carroll
Latta (2005.
Neal
Harmeyer is an archivist at the Purdue University
Libraries Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center in West
Lafayette, Indiana. He grew up on a multigenerational family farm in
northeastern Fayette County, Indiana, where he helped raise dairy and beef
cattle as well as hogs. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Purdue
and a master's degree in library science from Indiana University.