ABSTRACT
Who invented the cotton gin, the mechanical reaper, and the “steel” plow? Many elementary school children in the United States can answer Eli Whitney, Cyrus McCormick, and John Deere, respectively. These names are regularly invoked to explain modernization of the countryside and to tell reassuring stories of American progress, ingenuity, and superiority. Yet excellent cotton gins predated Whitney, McCormick’s machine was not the first or even most effective American reaper, and another Illinoisan experimented with steel in plow manufacture at the same time as Deere. The history of rural innovation is far more complex than the listing of firsts implies. Traditionally accepted farm technology narratives are often products of corporate marketing and family or regional pride in which the “winners” write the history.
