Special Collections Celebrates Agricultural Awareness Week 2016
March 23, 2016
In honor of Agricultural Awareness Week at NC State, the NCSU Libraries is presenting an exhibit in the Ask Us lobby area of the D. H. Hill Jr. Library to give a glimpse into the past of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service (previously named the Agricultural Extension Service).
“Our Agricultural Heritage: A Look Back Into the Past of the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service” will showcase extraordinary figures and scenes from different departments from the last 100 years of the Extension Service. This exhibit will be up until Friday, March 25.
All patrons are welcome to rediscover the lives of Ruth Current , former state home demonstration agent; John W. Mitchell , N.C. A&T extension agent and eventual National Extension Leader; L. R. Harrill , “Mr. 4-H”; Dazelle Foster Lowe , one of the first African-American Home Demonstration leaders, Frank H. Jeter , director of agricultural publications; and R. W. Graeber an early pioneer of our state’s farm forestry program.
A look into the exhibit case will also show farmers, students, professors and extension agents at work in 4-H clubs, test farms, and many other Cooperative extension settings throughout NC.
On Tuesday March 15, National Agricultural Day, the D. H. Hill Jr. Library held a screening of The Last Barn Dance , a 30 minute documentary which chronicles dairy farmer Randy Lewis’ fight to save his business within an economy that decimated most other family farms in Alamance County. Outside of the auditorium prior to the film screening a selection of materials from the Special Collections Research Center highlighting small farming and agricultural extension in North Carolina were on display. Many faculty, staff, students and guest enjoyed browsing these rare items on NC agriculture before the film.
The Special Collections Research Center has far more to offer on the history of NC agriculture and the NC Cooperative Extension Service. Please browse through our Rare and Unique Digital Collections and the Historical State search portal . Also visit the landing pages for our past digital collections on Cooperative Extension history: Green and Growing , Cultivating A Revolution , and Living Off The Land .
The current SCRC digital project is “Better Living In North Carolina” a joint venture between the NCSU Libraries and the F. D. Bluford Library at North Carolina A&T State University. In “Better Living” hundreds of Cooperative Extension materials will be made available online to show the impact of economic change and technology on NC agriculture. The project is still growing with 148 reports online to date.
SCRC news articles from previous Ag Awareness Week events.
2015
Growth from the Grassroots : Agricultural Awareness Week
2014
100 years of extension - Celebrating the Past, Looking To The Future.