Thursday, September 1, 2022

Threshing Days

Threshing may seem like a strange thing for me to have on my mind, but a surprising number of references to it have come up lately!

The first was the

American Thresherman Steam and Gas Show
http://www.americanthresherman.com
Aug 17 - 21, 2022

    Description: Since 1960, event featuring threshing demonstrations with horse power, steam and tractors, antique machinery demonstrations, daily parade of power, antique car show, tractor and pedal pulls, flea market and demolition derby. The show starts on the night of Wednesday. We do not have day activities until Thursday.

    Location:
    Perry County Fairgrounds
    220 Oxbow Road
    Pinckneyville, IL 62274


It is so interesting how things change over time! When I was working on my master's thesis in Curriculum & Instruction, I did an Action Research project in the classroom where we read historical fiction in chronological order for an entire school year to see if hearing the events in the order that they happened led students to make new connections. And it did! One that stands out in my mind the most was a student comment when we read All Aboard! Elijah McCoy's Steam Engine by Monica Kulling.


The story is about Elijah McCoy inventing an oil cup as a means of oiling the engine while the train was running. This saved the lives of many grease monkeys, small boys who climbed around lubricating the thing and often getting injured in the process. Meg realized that the term "grease monkey" probably evolved from "powder monkey," a term that came up in something we read from the Civil War period. Powder monkeys were small boys who brought gunpowder to the cannons and had to hurry to get away in time.

It was an amazing connection and one we would never have made had we not looked at those events in order.

Zac and I just finished reading Little House in the Big Woods as his bedtime read aloud story (and are on to Farmer Boy), and there was a whole chapter about a horse-drawn thresher. It was amazing! And it got me to thinking how cool it would be when we look at the Industrial Revolution this year in U.S. History to just choose one process and see how it has evolved through time to get more and more efficient. Usually Waldorf schools spend time on the sewing machine, cotton mills, garment factories, etc. because children have been working with fibers the slow way since Kindergarten and so they realize just how much of a difference these new tools make! Charles Kovacs spends a lot of time on the invention of the spinning jenny in The Age of Revolution.


But I think threshing could be a cool topic to study as well. Some thoughts:



Farmer George Plants a Nation
by Peggy Thomas
1793




Van Gogh: The Complete Paintings
by Ingo F. Walther and Rainer Metzger
1886 - 1890

    Van Gogh's paintings of farming! As I looked through the complete collection of his paintings, I found every step in the process:

    • The Sower
      October 1888, page 434

    • Green Wheat Fields
      May 1890, page 628

    • Wheat Field at Auvers with White House
      June 1890, page 654

    • Wheat Fields near Auvers
      June 1890, page 670

    • Wheat Field with Crows
      July 1890, page 690

    • Wheat Field Behind Saint-Paul Hospital with a Reaper
      September 1889, page 554

    • Sheaves of Wheat
      July 1890, page 699

    • Peasant Woman Binding Sheaves [after Millet]
      September 1889, page 553

    • Reaper with Sickle [after Millet]
      September 1889, page 553

    • Noon: Rest from Work [after Millet]
      January 1890, page 610

    • The Thresher [after Millet]
      September 1889, page 550

    • Peasant Woman Cutting Straw [after Millet]
      September 1889, page 551

    • View of Montmartre with Windmills
      Autumn 1886, page 194

    • Field with Ploughman and Mill
      October 1889, page 556




Little House in the Big Woods
by Laura Ingalls Wilder
1871




Great-Grandma Tells of Threshing Days
by Verda Cross
early 1900s

    threshing machine
    powered by steam (external combustion engine)

    this is where the American Thresherman Steam and Gas Show would go in time




Edwardian Farm
avaiable FREE on Prime Video
early 1900s



2019

    from Wikipedia:

    "The modern combine harvester, or simply combine, is a versatile machine designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops. The name derives from its combining four separate harvesting operations -- reaping, threshing, gathering, winnowing -- to a single process."



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