The
Power of Agricultural Cooperative Extension: 100 Years of Penn State
Service,” an exhibition, will be on display June 17 through Sept. 15, in
The Special Collections Library, 104 Paterno Library, Penn State
University Park. A special lecture, “The Impact of Cooperative Extension
at Penn State,” is scheduled for noon to 1 p.m. Sept. 3 in Foster
Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library.
In 1914, Congressman M. Hoke Smith (D-Georgia) and Asbury Lever
(D-South Carolina) sponsored legislation to enhance the nation’s
land-grant university system created under the Morrill Act in 1862.
Signed into law on May 8, the Smith-Lever Act established the
cooperative extension system. The system partnered federal, state and
county governments with land-grant institutions, such as Penn State, to
translate and share scientific information with farmers, and in
communities across the country and the commonwealth.
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| The Agricultural Train (1908) |
Historically, Penn State had been providing lectures and publications
at farmers’ institutes, at Farmers’ Week and through agricultural
trains as far back as 1870. In 1892, it launched the nation’s first
correspondence courses in agriculture and two years prior to the passage
of the Smith-Lever Act, Penn State funded the first county agents in
Blair, Butler, Mercer, Montgomery and Washington counties.
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| Ag Extension Tech was often at the forefront, providing farmers with the very latest in developments straight from University resources. |
By 1921, 62 of the 67 Pennsylvania counties had full-time agents
whose efforts were centralized through the College of Agriculture. The
agents provided technical information, results from the experiment
station, supervised experimental plantings, judged at local fairs,
organized 4-H youth groups and provided various types of practical
instruction through workshops, courses and institutes across the
commonwealth.
The exhibit features archival materials documenting the revolution in
practical advances spawned by the Smith-Lever Act and Penn State
Extension, including demonstration methods, 4-H, early inventions and
technology, home economics, trips and camps such as Club Week and Young
Farmers Week, forestry improvements, nutrition and environmental
progress. Access to
actual archival documents from Cooperative Extension agents is available.
The bulk of the archival collection contains county agent narrative
and statistical annual reports of activities back to 1912, extension
service publications, correspondence, photographs, land use surveys,
youth programming, and financial records related to agricultural and
home economics management. The reports are arranged alphabetically by
county and within each county the reports are delineated
chronologically.
Additional information about the
Smith-Lever Act and the 100th anniversary of Penn State Extension is available.
For additional information about this exhibit, collections related to
Penn State Extension and the University Archives or if you anticipate
needing accessibility accommodations or have questions about the
physical access provided, contact Jackie Esposito at 814-863-3791 or
jxe2@psu.edu.
