Poultry Farm Group Portrait, Rural Midwest, 1950s

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Poultry Farm Group Portrait, Rural Midwest, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Poultry Farm Group Portrait, Rural Midwest, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-6BD010

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Twenty-odd men posed outside a brick livestock or poultry building in the American agricultural 1950s, the sign on the wall behind them reading 'House No. 2, Pens 231-274.' That kind of numbered inventory on a hand-lettered card meant a serious commercial operation — broilers, layers, or experimental stock — the sort of facility a land-grant university extension program or a regional co-op would run, and the kind the men here clearly knew well enough to gather and photograph in front of.

The group has the composition of an inspection tour or an industry field day: a mix of ages, most in open-collar work shirts and slacks, a few in ties as a concession to the occasion, hats held in hand by the front row as though someone had just asked them to look presentable. Field days were a serious institution in mid-century American agriculture — the idea being that if you got producers and agronomists into the same gravel lot for an afternoon, productivity would somehow follow.

They are all looking at the camera with the cooperative patience of men who would rather be inside checking on the pens. The one in the panama hat near center has the bearing of whoever organized the visit and will spend the drive home deciding it went well.

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