Oliver 1850 Tractor Model: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

The nature of farming dramatically changed in the 20th century through what came to be known as the Green Revolution. From the 1920s-1950s farming productivity rose dramatically due to mechanization, fertilizers, chemicals (fungicides, pesticides, herbicides) and the hybridization of plants and animals. Agricultural innovations continue to be important to farming today. While the museum has over a dozen full-size tractors and other pieces of farming equipment, most technical developments of the 20th century are represented in the collection through toys and models.

The Ertl Company of Dyersville, Iowa manufactured this die-cast metal model of an Oliver 1850 tractor in the 1960s. This Oliver 1850 tractor model was Ertl stock number 604 and built on a 1:16 scale.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Object Name: tractor, "Oliver 1850"
• ID Number: AG.69A09.04
• catalog number: 69A9.04
• accession number: 282677
• Credit Line: Fred Ertl, Jr.
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.