Featured Dating Help? Cabinet Photo - Long

Hello,

I have this one in my collection and I'm trying to put a rough date on it.

I sorta always assumed 1880's-1890's Post Civil War Due to the dresses on the ladies in the field.

I just wanted to get a few opinions so I can properly label it!

Warm Regards,
Scantic

 

I think closer to 1910.

 

See and this is why I ask!

I figured there was a chance it was between 1900-1920 as well but the card it was on. Just hoping it was earlier

 

ScanticAntiques, that's an interesting photo. Those are two nice-looking horses pulling the wagon.

I'm sort of surprised those are horses and not mules pulling the wagon back then.

My state was ranked 5th among the states in growing cotton as recently as a 2012 U.S. Dept. of Agriculture study.

 

Now wait just a cotton picking minute !!!

If that's not a snapshot of America , then I don't know what is !

 

Haha yeah, I knew that it's continued till this day.

They don't hand pick anymore do they?

 

100%

My favorite is the little boy on the back of the wagon!

 

This looks SO familiar..........

 

What's with the dwarf floating above the back of the wagon?

 

Sadly, no levitation or dwarf. Just a child standing on the mound of cotton lol

 

Not sure! I've never seen the image before.

 

"cotton harvester, machine for harvesting cotton bolls. Mechanical cotton harvesters are of two basic types, strippers and pickers. Stripper-type harvesters strip the entire plant of both open and unopened bolls along with many leaves and stems. The unwanted material is then removed by special devices at the gin. Strippers work most satisfactorily after frost has killed the green vegetative growth. Picker machines, often referred to as spindle-type harvesters, remove the cotton from open bolls and leave the bur on the plant. The spindles, which rotate on their axes at a high speed, are attached to a drum that also turns, causing the spindles to enter the plant. The cotton fibre is wrapped around the moistened spindles and then taken off by a special device called the doffer, from which the cotton is delivered to a large basket carried above the machine. Although a cotton harvester was patented in the U.S. in 1850, economic and social conditions prevented further development and full acceptance until the 1940s (emphasis added)."

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/139926/cotton-harvester

P.S. There are some great YouTube videos of the various machinery at work in a cotton field for you "machinery aficionados."

 

Agree; however, the woman/girls would never actually picked cotton in those hats and dresses. The woman look dressed in their Sunday go-to-meeting clothes. Note they don't have the necessary cotton picking bag slung over their shoulders. The men look dressed in what would have been worn for picking cotton, and they do have the bag slung over their shoulder. It all looks a bit staged to me.

The early mechanical pickers were not practical on the small family farms in the south. Like "yourturn" found, the mechanical pickers were not fully used until the 1940s. They were only practical on the huge flat cotton fields of the Mississippi delta. This pic certainly doesn't look like one of the large delta cotton plantations. In the early 1960s when I first stepped foot in the state of Mississippi, there were still some fields being picked by hand. In the 1940s, 50s, early 60s and no doubt before, some of the small out-in-the country schools were let out for a couple of weeks in the fall for cotton picking. Many of the teenagers, **both** black and white, were eager to get in a few weeks of cotton picking for spending money to use at the big, huge, Mid-South Fair in Memphis, TN. Also everyone wanted to see the Cotton Carnival or the Cotton Maker's Jubilee in Memphis with their grand Kewes floats in the Fall. At one time these events rivaled the New Orleans Mardi Gras parades. Sad to say they were just another example of the "separate but equal" mentally of that time.
http://historic-memphis.com/memphis-historic/cottoncarnival/cottoncarnival.html

--- Susan

 

I went to a "county" school grades 1 through 12 which served both the "community/village" we lived in as well as a large portion of the county which was strictly rural/agricultural. The children of farm-owning families (but not a child/teenager who simply wanted to "go pick for money") were allowed out of school for a week early in the spring for planting and again for a week in the fall for harvesting on the "family farm." There were also a large number of "dairy farms" but those kids didn't get time out of school for "dairy farming." The largest "clubs" in my high school were the FFA (Future Farmers of America) and the 4-H Club.

 

Is everyone in agreement that it's C.1910?

 

>...were allowed out of school for a week early in the spring for planting and again for a week in the fall for harvesting on the "family farm." <

DH is a west TN boy. The county schools (both white & black) in his corner of the world were closed for a few weeks in the fall for cotton picking. His school didn't close for he lived in town.

Some counties in the Mississppi River delta areas (Washington, Sunflower, etc...) opened and closed the black schools according to the cotton chopping and cotton picking seasons.

"Schools would close in May for cotton chopping and open again in July. Schools would close again in September for cotton picking and open again in November."

Gee, these schools went through the hot summer months when there was no air conditioning.

--- Susan

 

Not sure about everybody, and I really can't see the picture in great enough detail to tell... but I do think that is a good ballpark number. The dark card stock indicates to me that it's likely to be later than 1895 or so, and from what I see of the clothing it does fit with early 20th century.

 

I forgot to mention the wagon. At one time this wagon would have been considered pretty good for a cotton wagon because it has a spring seat and a buckboard, board, attached to the front of the wagon. These boards were foot rests and protection from a kicking horse/mule. As to the seat, not because it's a spring seat for they were not that comfortable, but because it even had a seat. I remember the horse drawn cotton wagons taking cotton to the gins as taller with no seats. DH says most of the cotton wagons had the driver standing in the back of the wagon holding the reins or the drivers were perched/sitting on the front edge of the wagon. This wagon could be considered an all purpose farm wagon. These wagons were made from the latter 1/2 of the 1800s through the 1920s to probably the early 1950s.

Here is one at the Louisiana Cotton Museum dated pre1900. 2nd pic down.
http://davidbonnerarchitect.com/db/State_Museum_Design.html

Here is one made in the 1920s:
http://www.farmcollector.com/equipment/vintage-wagon-manufacturers.aspx?SlideShow=1

Here is a dedicated cotton wagon that I remember seeing with no seat, 1938 Arkansas picture. Scoll down to see the pic:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Photo-Hauling-cotton-to-gin-Lehi-Arkansas-/291438893732?ru=http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=291438893732&_rdc=1&nma=true&si=sVKeSspPrdDOtQtEB39kiHprO4c%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I certainly agree on the 1910s to c1920. Those dresses may be earlier, but those poor folks certainly would not have up-to-date clothing.

--- Susan