Book: Interpreting Agriculture at Museums and Historic Sites

Interpreting Agriculture at Museums and Historic Sites helps educators and interpreters see the potential for developing a humanist approach to agriculture education, exhibits, and programming. This starts with a rational for adding history, literature, theater and the arts to the study of a multidisciplinary subject – agriculture. It continues with a step-by-step procedure to document agriculture in local, regional, national, and international context. This amounts to adopting an agricultural point of view and a mind-set that recognizes multiple perspectives (a farmer’s eye view, a plant’s eye view, or an animal’s eye view) to the huge, diverse, and often controversial subject of agriculture. It provides numerous examples about how to develop interpretation over time, including basic research into archival and three-dimensional evidence, training in reading photographs and analyzing artifacts, and ideas for exhibit and programs. It identifies partners that can collaborate to increase humanities coverage. The time line and bibliography offer invaluable overviews of agriculture, national policy, and significant issues over time.