Restoring 1960s Farm Crisis and Agricultural Transition Photos

The 1960s saw the acceleration of the long agricultural transformation that would eventually reduce the farm population from nearly half of all Americans to less than 2%. Family photographs from this period document the specific moment when many families were deciding whether to stay or go.

The Last Generation of Small Family Farms

1960s farm photographs often show the last generation of a specific family's agricultural work — the farm that would be sold in the 1970s or 1980s, the last harvest before consolidation, the specific agricultural practices that mechanization would eliminate.

Mechanization Documented

The specific machinery of 1960s farming — the equipment that represented the latest technology when it was purchased and would itself become obsolete within a decade — is visible in family farm photographs. This equipment history documents the material transformation of American agriculture.

Family Farm as Heritage

For families who left farming in the 1960s-1980s, the farm photographs are documents of a heritage that no subsequent generation has been able to continue. They connect descendants to a specific relationship with land and labor that has largely disappeared.

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