13 Turn-of-the-Century Tractor Pics

It’s Friday, which means here at Modern Farmer HQ we like to kick back and take a trip through the photography archives of the Library of Congress. From finding sweet-as-heck vintage victory garden posters to wondrous old-school farming pics, it’s probably the most fun you can possibly have on the Internet.

By the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s, steam- and gasoline-powered traction engines (or “tractors”) had gone gone from agricultural oddity to field necessity. Join us as a we take a look at the thirteen turn-of-the-century tractors. Watch your feet.

Threshing in Buffalo County, ca. 1888

Anders Hultstrand’s threshing machine, Soper Post Office, North Dakota, ca. 1895

Threshing by steam engine on W.M. Fellows farm near Kearney, Nebraska, ca. 1910

Tractor show, ca. 1922

Andy and Mandus Hultstrand plowing with the Pioneer tractor : Fairdale, North Dakota, ca. 1912.

Ford Tractor, ca. 1917

Plowing and seeding by steam in South Dakota, ca. 1907

Automobile plow in use in England, ca. 1906

Peerless steam lift plow, Pazandak Farm, Fullerton, North Dakota, ca. 1908

Plowing with a Geiser steam engine, ca. 1908

Agriculture machinery, harvesting, possibly in Colorado, ca. 1900-1920

Big 4 tractor plowing, ca. 1910

Three binders pulled by Twin City “25” tractor, ca. 1918

Source: Library of Congress