John Deere model 55 self-propelled combine (a close-up)
Creator
Koester, Craig R., 1953-
Description
Land ower's interpretation: This is a John Deere model 55 self-propelled combine. It was first put on the market in 1947. The slide probably dates from between 1947 and 1950. It shows the combine being used to harvest wheat or possibly oats, which were much more common in SE Minnesota than they are now. This combine marked an advance over two earlier forms of technology. One was the threshing machine, which my family used until the 1940s. The threshing machine required workers to manually put bundles of grain into it, so it could separate the kernels for grain from the straw stems. The other form of technology was a combine that was pulled by a tractor. The self-propelled combine was larger and could harvest more grain in a shorter amount of time.
Prairie Creek Wildlife Management Area Digital Collection
Contributing Organization
Carleton College
Contact Information
Kimberly K. Smith, Professor of Environmental Studies and Political Science (ksmith@carleton.edu); or Hsianghui Liu-Spencer, Cataloging & Digital Services Librarian (hliuspen@carleton.edu) Gould Library, at Carleton College.
Rights Management
The materials in this collection are available for use either because they are in the public domain, have been made available via Creative Commons license, or have no known copyright.