New Agricultural History Resources Online

Special Collections has received a couple of grants/awards during the past few years that are allowing us to digitize more materials on agricultural history.  The projects were recently described in a posting on the NC State University Libraries News site.  This posting of Special Collections News will provide more information on some of the resources, now newly accessible through the Special Collections Rare & Unique Digital Collections website.  The work was funded through Project Ceres, a collaboration between the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN), the Agriculture Network Information Collaborative (AgNIC) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) to support ongoing preservation and digitization of collections in the field of agriculture.

NC State Student Publications

Four student journals or magazines from NC State's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) have been digitized, and they represent some of the earliest materials in this project.  The titles are  North Carolina Student Farmer (1908-1909), the N.C. State Agriculturist (1923-1960), Ag Student (1962-1972, later titled Agri-Life), and Brain Plower (1971-1987, sometimes titled Brain Plow).

N. C. State Agriculturist Vol 23. No 4., 1950
N. C. State Agriculturist Vol 23. No 4., 1950
N. C. State Agriculturist Vol 10. No 4., 1935
N. C. State Agriculturist Vol 10. No 4., 1935
Brain Plower, Spring 1983
Brain Plower, Spring 1983

Research and Farming

Research and Farming was a journal published by the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station (which later became the NC Agricultural Research Service), and it provided information on agricultural research within the state.  Issues are dated 1941-1981.

Research and Farming Vol. 16 No. 4, 1958
Research and Farming Vol. 16 No. 4, 1958
Research and Farming Vol. 20 Nos. 3-4 [1 issue], 1962
Research and Farming Vol. 20 Nos. 3-4 [1 issue], 1962
Research and Farming Vol. 24 No. 1, 1965
Research and Farming Vol. 24 No. 1, 1965
Research and Farming Vol. 26 Nos. 3-4 [ 1 issue ], 1968
Research and Farming Vol. 26 Nos. 3-4 [ 1 issue ], 1968

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Annual Reports

Also digitized were the CALS annual reports, 1950-1988.  These reports also contain information on the NC Agricultural Extension Service / NC Cooperative Extension and the NC Agricultural Experiment Station / NC Agricultural Research Service.

Agriculture, Astride the Century: College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Annual Report, Academic Year 1950-1951
Agriculture, Astride the Century: College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Annual Report, Academic Year 1950-1951

Other Publications

Other early CALS publications have been digitized also.  North Carolina Rural Life (1921-1923) and North Carolina Agriculture and Industry (1923-1925) were edited by sociologist Carl C. Taylor early in his career (Taylor is better known for his work in New Deal agencies during the 1930s and as a leader in the sociological profession).  Taylor was also involved with a survey of economic and social conditions of North Carolina farmers from the early 1920s.  Also included is North Carolina Farm Business, which the CALS Department of Agricultural Economics published during the early years of the Great Depression (1930-1931).

North Carolina Agriculture and Industry. Vol. 2 No. 2, 1924
North Carolina Agriculture and Industry. Vol. 2 No. 2, 1924

Several early publications of the NC Agricultural Experiment Station have also been digitized.  These include the following:

Many of these are publication series, and titles of individual issues have been indexed to make them more discoverable.  For example, AE Information Series No. 1 is also titled Farm Tenancy in North Carolina 1880-1935.

Within the next year other resources will also become available.  Special Collection's current grant-funded project will result in online access to more than 5900 pages of NC Cooperative Extension materials.  These will include North Carolina county extension histories, many of which were written for Extension's 25th anniversary in 1939. A second group will consist of Farm & Home Week pamphlets (1928-1965) that describe activities and programs at this annual event for farm men and women. The project will also include cookbooks compiled in the late twentieth century by community-based extension homemaker clubs.  Finally, Special Collections will provide online access to 20 or more films from Extension's “Aspect” television program of the 1960s. 

This current grant-funded project (titled "Extending NC Cooperative Extension Digital History") will digitize materials found in the Center's archival collections, specifically the following:  North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service Audiovisual Materials, North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service County Operations Records, North Carolina Extension and Community Association Records, and the Wall Family Papers.  Digitized resources are accessible on the Libraries' Rare & Unique Digital Collections site.  Digitization is funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (IMLS grant number LS-252476-OLS-22).

Historical materials on agriculture are accessible on the Rare & Unique Digital Collections site.  Researchers interested in viewing the original paper and print materials can schedule an appointment with the Special Collections Research Center. The Special Collections Research Center is open by appointment only. Appointments are available Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm and Saturday, 1pm–5pm. Requests for a Saturday appointment must be received no later than Tuesday of the same week. If you have any questions or are interested in viewing Special Collections materials, please contact us at library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu or submit a request online.