Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/01/2023
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Location
Universty of PA Library
Category(ies)
The Library of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture was deposited with the University of Pennsylvania in 1888, at a time when the Society’s activities had ceased and very few living members remained . It was the discovery of the Society’s papers stored in the basement of the new university library (now the Furness Fines Arts building) that led to the revival of the Society in the early twentieth century. Thus the Library survives both as a monument to the past and as a source of new beginning.
Rich in artifactual value, the manuscripts of the early American period also provide uncommon resources for the study of American farmer’s quest for improved farming practices. As the economy of the new nation became dependent on a scientific approach to farming that would develop agriculture into a strong basic economy, the records of the Society’s correspondence and activities document the results of new methods of planting, fertilizing, harvesting, and the breeding and care of livestock.