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Free to Use and Reuse: Farm Life

This selection of images from the 19th and 20th centuries display aspects of life on American farms: landscapes, work, play, and everyday moments from dinner to doctor visits. All pictures are from the Prints & Photographs Division unless otherwise credited. Browse more content that is free to use and reuse

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  Boy in tire swing holds a cow on a tether. Photo from U.S. Extension Service, 1925-1930

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  Wife of resettled farmer, Roanoke Farms, North Carolina. Photo by John Vachon, 1938

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  Maine State Agricultural Society. Poster, 1894

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  Home of Spanish-American farm family. Taos County, New Mexico. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939

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  Spreading fertilizer from 4-mule team wagon, Georgia. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott, around 1940

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  The day's end. Photograph, 1905

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  Plains farms need trees. Poster by Joseph Dusek, 1936-1940

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  Man and woman in rockers by fireplace. Photo from USDA Extension Service, 1925-1930

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  Southeast Missouri Farms. Family of FSA (Farm Security Administration) client before moving from old house. Photo by Russell Lee, 1938

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  Son of one of the FSA farmers on the Rio Piedras project who brought lunch to his father, working in the sugar cane field. Photo by Jack Delano, 1942

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  Barnyard. Lithograph by Mabel Dwight, 1939

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  The Montana Farmer-Stockman, newspaper

• Schultz Family dairy barn with the cheese room addition, early morning. Photo by Martha Cooper, 2013. American Folklife Center.

• Woman peeling potatoes in modern farm kitchen. Photo by Photo from USDA Extension Service, 1920s

• Roadside melon and vegetable stand with cornfield in background. Photo from USDA Extension Service, about 1930

• Marco Pena is about to delight the passing crowd with his lasso wizardry at the annual Iowa State Fair in the capital city of Des Moines, color photo, 2016

• Farm family eating dinner. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939

• Girl next to barn with chicken, possibly holding eggs in her folded apron. Unidentified photographer, 1941 or 1942.

• View from the bluffs of Sherrill, Iowa, of the rich agricultural valley, near the Mississippi River, far below, color photo, 2016

• Already carefully groomed, a sheep gets a good washing prior to its appearance in the show ring at the annual Iowa State Fair in the capital city of Des Moines. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2016

• Group of farm women holding plates of cake and ice cream and spooning homemade ice cream out of freezers. Photo by USDA, early 1930s

• Threshing. Caledonia County, Vermont. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1937

• Farmer with cotton seed, fence posts and wire ... Roanoke Farms, North Carolina. Photo by John Vachon, 1938

• Farm boy, Guilford County, North Carolina. Photo by John Vachon, 1938

• Son of farmsteader at Roanoke Farms, North Carolina. Photo by John Vachon, 1938

• Mona Lisa barn art, Wisconsin. Phone by Carol Highsmith, 1990

• Owner of 120-acre farm with family. Meeker County, Minnesota. Photo by John Vachon, 1940

• Crane at a "central" sugar cane gathering place, San Sebastian vicinity, Puerto Rico. Photo by Jack Delano, 1942

• Farmer Annie Glidden, detail from historical mural in DeKalb, Illinois, that recalls the area's agricultural roots, color photo, 2020

• Sign of FSA (Farm Security Administration) labor camp, Caldwell, Idaho. Photo by Russell Lee, 1941

• Image 14 of Jarvis farm, Ennice, Alleghany County, North Carolina. Photo by Lyntha Scott Eiler, 1978. American Folklife Center

• Farm scene showing house, animals, people working. Woodcut by John Aiken, 1818

• Diploma awarded by the People's Agricultural Society of West Jersey. Lithograph by P.S. Duval, around 1862

• Farmstead scene with woman and child on the road and men fishing in boats nearby. Chromolithograph by Paul R. Koehler, 1905

• Two women making braided rugs on porch. Photo from U.S. Department of Agriculture, Extension Service,1925-1930

• Now I'm satisfied. Rural Electrification Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Poster by Lester Beall, 1930s

• Farm people at livestock auction. Central Iowa Fair, Marshalltown, Iowa. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1939

• Negro farm owner and brother leaning on well top on their farm, near Jefferson, Texas. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939

• Migrant pickers harvesting beans. Farm people came from South Dakota. Photo by Dorothea Lange, 1939

• Daughter of Mexican farm family at home. Photo by Russell Lee, 1939

• Sorting and packing tomatoes at the Yauco Cooperative Tomato Growers Association, Puerto Rico. Photo by Jack Delano, 1942

• Country doctor visiting farm family. Photo by John Vachon, 1942

• Agriculture. Women on farms. Like many another U.S. farmer's wife, Mrs. Harold Sontag of Maple Park, Illinois, takes an active part in the management of her farm but at the end of a long and active day, she still finds time to entertain her tow-headed youngsters with tales of farm life "when I was a little girl." Photo, by Ann Rosener, 1942

• Vernon County, Wisconsin. Mrs. Saugstad about to bake a pie in her electric oven. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1942

• Westby, Vernon County, Wisconsin. Saugstad discussing an electric fence with the manager of the consumer's cooperative. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1942

• Vernon County, Wisconsin. Robert Saugstad and other boys in a Future Farmers of America (FFA) group examining a calf in the Saugstad farm. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1942

• Penasco, New Mexico. A boy standing in front of a picture representing "balanced" farm life, such as does not exist in this part of the country. Photo by John Collier, Jr., 1943

• Hofherr Round Barn, County Road 650 West, Yorktown, Delaware County, Indiana. Historic American Buildings Survey

• Decorated Red Barn, Between Limeport & Steinberg, Limeport, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Historic American Buildings Survey, 1941

• A harvesting combine kicks up dust during its work in a field near the tiny town of Carpenter in southeast Wyoming's Laramie County. Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2015

• Ominous clouds above Pine Bluffs, a small farming community on the Nebraska border in Laramie County, Wyoming. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, 2015