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Deering Harvester Advertising Poster, 1899 ca. Buy a copy of this image: WHI 41551 View the original source document: WHI 41551

During the late nineteenth century, technological change transformed American life. Most easily recalled are the changes associated with the growth of factories and urban areas. Yet, during this same time period significant changes were also occurring on the family farm. Students will develop their analytical skills by critically examining an advertising poster from the McCormick-International Harvester Collection. The process will suggest the various perspectives and values held by people during this time period.

Objectives

Students will:

• Gain knowledge about nineteenth-century technological changes and develop analytical skills by analyzing a primary source
• Think critically and make intelligent inferences
• Select significant changes caused by technology and analyze the effects of these changes in the United States

Resource Materials

• Online Exhibit: Art of the Draw: Advertising Posters from the McCormick-International Harvester Collection
• About the McCormick-International Harvester Collection

Procedures

1. Produce several copies of poster number 11 from the online exhibit, "Art of the Draw: Advertising Posters from the McCormick-International Harvester Collection." Make sure the copies do not contain the exhibit caption. The activity will be enhanced if the students have access to color copies.
2. Distribute copies of the poster to groups of students and have them analyze the poster by answering the following questions, adapted from the PBS web site sections on Using Primary Source Documents
   • Who produced this poster? When? How can you tell?
   • Who do you think is the intended audience for this poster? · What is happening in the poster? What story does it tell?
   • Why was the poster produced? What is its purpose? How can you tell?
   • What can you tell about the values or beliefs of the creators of this poster and of the intended audience of this poster?
   • Identify any stereotypes used in this advertisement.
   • What generalizations can we make about the past from this poster?
   • Are these generalizations important to us today? Why or why not?
   • What image of rural America is this poster intended to evoke?
3. After students have finished answering the questions, discuss their responses.
Have students research an advertisement for a similar product manufactured today. Compare and contrast the messaging. What has changed? What has stayed the same? Sample websites:

• John Deere
• Case IH Agriculture
• Kubota

Enhancement

Students can learn more about this time period and expand upon the theme of progress by doing further research on one of the topics found below.

1. Commercial art: Selling through aesthetics
2. The Industrial Revolution and the making of a consumer society
3. The changing nature of rural American life
4. American agricultural inventiveness
5. "Big" industry: Farm equipment and the incorporation of American agriculture
6. Agricultural industry and its effect on settlement in the Midwest
7. International marketing of American agricultural equipment and/or products

Find additional teaching activities related to Art of the Draw using advertising posters from the McCormick-International Harvester Collection.

Credit

This teacher-submitted, secondary-level lesson plan appeared in Badger History Bulletin. Please adapt it to fit your students' needs. Author: David Driscoll, Curator of Business and Technology at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.