a century of change for farm families and their neighbors
Opening Reception
Wednesday, February 7, 2007,
7:00 p.m.
Booth Library Marvin Foyer
Music by Jerry Ellis, mandolin; Phil Goodman, banjo; Mark Esarey, guitar; Don Frederick, bass
Farming in the 21st Century—Cutting Edge Technology....Farmers are Savvy First Adopters
7:30 p.m.
Booth Library West Reading Room
Farmers in the 21st Century are likely to understand as much about the world economy as they do about the pathogens and pests that destroy their crops. Today’s farmers are likely to know as many university agronomists as they do seed company representatives. Although in many ways not so different from the farmers who preceded them—hard-working stewards of the land and masters of many trades—a farmer’s success in today’s fast-paced, competitive marketplace might depend upon understanding and embracing the latest agricultural innovations. This presentation will show how Illinois farmers are plowing forward in the 21st Century.
Linda Sue Kull, Ph.D., Production Research Coordinator, National Soybean Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Booth Library Marvin Foyer
Music by Jerry Ellis, mandolin; Phil Goodman, banjo; Mark Esarey, guitar; Don Frederick, bass
Farming in the 21st Century—Cutting Edge Technology....Farmers are Savvy First Adopters
7:30 p.m.
Booth Library West Reading Room
Farmers in the 21st Century are likely to understand as much about the world economy as they do about the pathogens and pests that destroy their crops. Today’s farmers are likely to know as many university agronomists as they do seed company representatives. Although in many ways not so different from the farmers who preceded them—hard-working stewards of the land and masters of many trades—a farmer’s success in today’s fast-paced, competitive marketplace might depend upon understanding and embracing the latest agricultural innovations. This presentation will show how Illinois farmers are plowing forward in the 21st Century.
Linda Sue Kull, Ph.D., Production Research Coordinator, National Soybean Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grapes of Wrath
Saturday, February 10,
7:00 p.m. free admission tonight only
Will Rogers Theatre
705 Monroe Avenue, Charleston
In this enduring classic, we follow the Joad family and other sharecroppers as they travel westward, driven from their Oklahoma farm by drought, failed crops, and mechanization. But the golden dream of California also fails them. Hungry and exploited, the displaced families of the Great Depression struggle to survive when confronted by more than just Mother Nature. It is an exhilarating story of pain, faith, and pride.
Film introduced by Chuck Koplinski
Co-sponsored by the Embarras Valley Film Festival Organization of The Coles County Arts Council
Will Rogers Theatre
705 Monroe Avenue, Charleston
In this enduring classic, we follow the Joad family and other sharecroppers as they travel westward, driven from their Oklahoma farm by drought, failed crops, and mechanization. But the golden dream of California also fails them. Hungry and exploited, the displaced families of the Great Depression struggle to survive when confronted by more than just Mother Nature. It is an exhilarating story of pain, faith, and pride.
Film introduced by Chuck Koplinski
Co-sponsored by the Embarras Valley Film Festival Organization of The Coles County Arts Council
What Do Steinbeck’s Sharecroppers and Cornbelt Entrepreneurs Have in Common? Or, How the Farm Family Experience Defines Agriculture
Monday, February 12,
4:00 p.m.
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
The interest in celebrating farm-owning families’ accomplishments relates to an old attitude most often associated with Thomas Jefferson’s concept of agrarianism. By controlling property - the land - farm owners secured their independence. Farmers who did not own their land - tenants (and slaves in Jefferson’s time) - functioned as little more than wage laborers, a dependent class incapable of protecting their interests. Fast forward 150 years - from the 1780s to the 1930s, and tenants proved themselves incapable of protecting their interests even during an era of New Deal legislation. Landowners reaped the benefits - enclosing land in a process that many equated with rural modernization. Fast forward another 50 years - from the 1930s to the 1980s, and many family farmers found themselves incapable of protecting their interests in the wake of inflated land values, over investment, dropping commodity prices, and shrinking markets. Before the New Deal of the 1930s and even after the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, attitudes about the merit of family farming affected policy decisions, marketing, and personal choice. It also leads to bias in conveying the complexity of farming history in the United States. For example, many Chippewa Valley farm families farmed as tenants at some point. During the 1930s in the Chicago milk shed, large numbers of tenant farmers operated dairy farms, but “Farm Life” does not discuss this, privileging, instead, the farm-owning family. In contrast, the experiences of the Joads in eastern Oklahoma and later in the fertile San Joaquin Valley ofCalifornia, imply that families farming as tenants or laborers faced exploitation despite their commitment to agriculture. Only corporate farmers get a bad name in Steinbeck’s book, not family farmers. At present, some full-blown agribusinesses market themselves as family farm operations, and Corn Belt farmers invest millions in Brazilian land, machinery, and labor to remain viable family farmers, both indications of the limitless potential of modern concepts of the family farm.
Debra Reid, associate professor of history
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
The interest in celebrating farm-owning families’ accomplishments relates to an old attitude most often associated with Thomas Jefferson’s concept of agrarianism. By controlling property - the land - farm owners secured their independence. Farmers who did not own their land - tenants (and slaves in Jefferson’s time) - functioned as little more than wage laborers, a dependent class incapable of protecting their interests. Fast forward 150 years - from the 1780s to the 1930s, and tenants proved themselves incapable of protecting their interests even during an era of New Deal legislation. Landowners reaped the benefits - enclosing land in a process that many equated with rural modernization. Fast forward another 50 years - from the 1930s to the 1980s, and many family farmers found themselves incapable of protecting their interests in the wake of inflated land values, over investment, dropping commodity prices, and shrinking markets. Before the New Deal of the 1930s and even after the Farm Crisis of the 1980s, attitudes about the merit of family farming affected policy decisions, marketing, and personal choice. It also leads to bias in conveying the complexity of farming history in the United States. For example, many Chippewa Valley farm families farmed as tenants at some point. During the 1930s in the Chicago milk shed, large numbers of tenant farmers operated dairy farms, but “Farm Life” does not discuss this, privileging, instead, the farm-owning family. In contrast, the experiences of the Joads in eastern Oklahoma and later in the fertile San Joaquin Valley ofCalifornia, imply that families farming as tenants or laborers faced exploitation despite their commitment to agriculture. Only corporate farmers get a bad name in Steinbeck’s book, not family farmers. At present, some full-blown agribusinesses market themselves as family farm operations, and Corn Belt farmers invest millions in Brazilian land, machinery, and labor to remain viable family farmers, both indications of the limitless potential of modern concepts of the family farm.
Debra Reid, associate professor of history
Migrant Children’s Education During the Dust Bowl
RESCHEDULED TO MARCH 6, 4:00 p.m.
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
A presentation about migrant children’s education during the Dust Bowl, focusing on digital primary source materials, websites, and children’s literature about the Dust Bowl. The presentation is based on Dr. Fero’s current research on social studies and technology integration. The digital primary sources will be displayed via PowerPoint, along with open-ended questions about the images on the slides. This will be an interactive presentation, with questions being brainstormed and discussed by the audience and presenter. The rationale for this type of classroom activity is based on research that indicates the diminishing place of the social studies in the elementary curriculum in K-12 schools. This appears to be the result of high-stakes testing in reading and math instituted by the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act. It is hoped that the use of digital primary source lessons, units, etc., will entice inservice teachers to not “leave behind” the social studies as a vital curriculum in their classrooms.
Marie Fero, assistant professor of early childhood, elementary, and middle level education
Illinois Agriculture: Innovation and Invention
A presentation about people and events throughout the past century who have shaped our state’s history using agriculture as a tool. During this presentation, you will travel through time to witness how these events have impacted our modern-day life. This documentary was produced by the Illinois Farm Bureau Ag-in-the-Classroom program and was funded by Facilitating Coordinator of Ag Education and the IAA Foundation.
Mark Phelan, director, Coles County Farm Bureau
Impressions of Farming: Past and Future
By invitation only
Thursday, February 22, 5:00 p.m.
Booth Library Seminar Room 3202
Dean Lanham and other librarians will host a roundtable discussion for students and faculty representing Eastern’s Honors College and International Programs. Participants will gather for a farm meal and discuss farming issues from the past and what to expect in the future.
Allen Lanham, Dean of Library Services, moderator
Thursday, February 22, 5:00 p.m.
Booth Library Seminar Room 3202
Dean Lanham and other librarians will host a roundtable discussion for students and faculty representing Eastern’s Honors College and International Programs. Participants will gather for a farm meal and discuss farming issues from the past and what to expect in the future.
Allen Lanham, Dean of Library Services, moderator
Only an Orphan Girl
A production of the Theatre Arts
Department of Eastern Illinois University
Friday, February 23 – Tuesday, February 27
7:00 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Monday;
2:00 p.m. on Sunday and Tuesday
Village Theatre
960 18th Street
Charleston, IL 61920
call 217-581-3110 for tickets
This is an old-style melodrama, in the 19th century tradition. The performance premise is that a traveling theatre troupe at the turn of the 20th century is making a stop in Charleston, Illinois, to perform Only an Orphan Girl. In the play, the classic good-versus-evil scenario manifests as a city-bred villain attempts to gain the inheritance of his niece, an orphan who was adopted as a child by a Central Illinois farm family. The villain, Arthur, threatens foreclosure on the Perkins’ property unless the orphan girl, Nellie, becomes his wife. Is all hope for the family lost, or will the Perkins’ son, Dick, triumph and gain enough cash to pay the mortgage? Will the mystery of Nellie’s true parentage ever be revealed? This is audience-participatory; in the melodramatic tradition, audiences will be encouraged to cheer the hero and boo the villain.
Christopher Mitchell, assistant professor of theatre arts/theatre history/literature
Friday, February 23 – Tuesday, February 27
7:00 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Monday;
2:00 p.m. on Sunday and Tuesday
Village Theatre
960 18th Street
Charleston, IL 61920
call 217-581-3110 for tickets
This is an old-style melodrama, in the 19th century tradition. The performance premise is that a traveling theatre troupe at the turn of the 20th century is making a stop in Charleston, Illinois, to perform Only an Orphan Girl. In the play, the classic good-versus-evil scenario manifests as a city-bred villain attempts to gain the inheritance of his niece, an orphan who was adopted as a child by a Central Illinois farm family. The villain, Arthur, threatens foreclosure on the Perkins’ property unless the orphan girl, Nellie, becomes his wife. Is all hope for the family lost, or will the Perkins’ son, Dick, triumph and gain enough cash to pay the mortgage? Will the mystery of Nellie’s true parentage ever be revealed? This is audience-participatory; in the melodramatic tradition, audiences will be encouraged to cheer the hero and boo the villain.
Christopher Mitchell, assistant professor of theatre arts/theatre history/literature
The Influence of The Sears Catalogue on the Rural Household
Tuesday, February 27,
10:00 a.m.
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
How did the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue revolutionize American consumerism at the turn of the century during the golden age of rural America? The impact of mail home delivery (development of Rural Free Delivery), railroads, and increasing literacy led to the success of mail order catalogs. Deliveries ranged from houses, many of which are still lived in today, to medical devices and how the catalogue impacted the local economy and the social “scene” of rural America.
Pat McCallister, associate professor of family and consumer sciences
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
How did the Sears and Roebuck Catalogue revolutionize American consumerism at the turn of the century during the golden age of rural America? The impact of mail home delivery (development of Rural Free Delivery), railroads, and increasing literacy led to the success of mail order catalogs. Deliveries ranged from houses, many of which are still lived in today, to medical devices and how the catalogue impacted the local economy and the social “scene” of rural America.
Pat McCallister, associate professor of family and consumer sciences
Nostalgia and Uses of the Past in Back-to-the-Land Frontiering Narratives, 1970 – 1990
Wednesday, February 28,
3:00 p.m.
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
My interest in how people engage with the project of “going back to the land” as “new pioneers” centers on uses of the past to configure the present. More than mere nostalgia for a bygone “simple life” (though the simple life as ideal figures prominently among new pioneers) I explore how narratives about frontiering in back to the land publications rely on a mythical past to constitute and to represent the meaning of “now” for the many people who are part of a resurgence in urban to rural migration. Narratives about frontiering are narratives about rejecting urban life and embracing a rural life wherein farming, animal husbandry, home production of most necessities, and traditional forms of entertainment make the simple life an extraordinarily good life. That good life melds imaginative representations of the past with the practicalities of the present in ways that complicate our understanding of the role of nostalgia for contemporary back to the landers.
M. E. (Gene) Deerman, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
My interest in how people engage with the project of “going back to the land” as “new pioneers” centers on uses of the past to configure the present. More than mere nostalgia for a bygone “simple life” (though the simple life as ideal figures prominently among new pioneers) I explore how narratives about frontiering in back to the land publications rely on a mythical past to constitute and to represent the meaning of “now” for the many people who are part of a resurgence in urban to rural migration. Narratives about frontiering are narratives about rejecting urban life and embracing a rural life wherein farming, animal husbandry, home production of most necessities, and traditional forms of entertainment make the simple life an extraordinarily good life. That good life melds imaginative representations of the past with the practicalities of the present in ways that complicate our understanding of the role of nostalgia for contemporary back to the landers.
M. E. (Gene) Deerman, assistant professor of sociology and anthropology
Diet, Health and Physical Activity Out on the Farm: Taking a Look Back in Time to Compare the Years
Monday, March 5,
4:00 p.m.
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
Were the good old days really that good? Or, is today’s world of convenience, technology, automation and fast food carry outs better? In this session we will take a look at the life of farm families and how things have changed over the years. Are the changes good, bad, or neutral? Join us for this information session as we compare how life on the farm has evolved over the years.
Karla Kennedy-Hagan, assistant professor of family and consumer sciences
Booth Library Conference Room 4440
Were the good old days really that good? Or, is today’s world of convenience, technology, automation and fast food carry outs better? In this session we will take a look at the life of farm families and how things have changed over the years. Are the changes good, bad, or neutral? Join us for this information session as we compare how life on the farm has evolved over the years.
Karla Kennedy-Hagan, assistant professor of family and consumer sciences
Impressions of Farming: Past and Future
By invitation only
Thursday, March 8, 5:00 p.m.
Booth Library Seminar Room 3202
Dean Lanham and other librarians will host a roundtable discussion for members of the local farming and agribusiness communities. Participants will gather for a farm meal and discuss farming issues from the past and what to expect in the future.
Allen Lanham, Dean of Library Services, moderator
Thursday, March 8, 5:00 p.m.
Booth Library Seminar Room 3202
Dean Lanham and other librarians will host a roundtable discussion for members of the local farming and agribusiness communities. Participants will gather for a farm meal and discuss farming issues from the past and what to expect in the future.
Allen Lanham, Dean of Library Services, moderator
