When you think of museums, you likely think of old artifacts and history — but museum curators are also watching modern-day technology and how it tells the story of changing times.
Smithsonian American History Museum curator Abeer Saha sits down with the Mid-West Farm Report in Washington D.C. His job is to put together exhibits, collect objects, and do research on topics related to engineering and agriculture.
Saha says less than 1 percent of artifacts curators collect go on display. Today, three tractors made the cut and are on display for millions of visitors along with some other agricultural artifacts — new and old.
He explains that what might be common for you on the farm, like a GPS in your tractor or an irrigation system, is something the Smithsonian and its patrons take interest in. It goes on display for an international audience.
“Something we collected recently is a modern-day tractor GPS unit,” Saha says. “There’s just so much more automation on a farm and a field. A tractor’s GPS unit represents the moment in that direction.”
Farm technology and artificial intelligence are of interest, but so is center-pivot irrigation, which Saha says revolutionized irrigation.
“It’s responsible for why so many fields now are circular when you look at them from an aircraft… because a center-pivot irrigation moves that water in a circular radius around the farm,” he explains. “It’s the kind of invention which has not just changed farming, but it’s changed the landscape and geography of what the Earth looks like.”
Museum visitors will see three tractors on display at the museum. They range from an old Waterloo Boy with steel tires to a tractor simulator for guests to try out a modern John Deere with all the bells and whistles.
In a glass case is a blue corduroy FFA jacket that belonged to Wisconsinite Karlene Lindow.
