Unidentified photographer 1870s (late) Farm equipment in rural America
Tintype, full plate Private collection of Andrew Daneman "At first glance one might want to call the contraption above a tractor. However, the rear wheels which would need extra traction to drive it, appear to be ordinary wagon wheels, not suitable for that kind of work. It was more likely a simple steam engine used to drive a thresher. A belt around a flywheel would drive the mechanisms of the thresher a task previously performed by horses. Visible also is the growing rift between class and race in America. The white fellow at the very center of this "world" atop his new machine, is tack sharp and the focus of this image in every respect, while the black man holding the horses and his companion are mere shadows." (Andrew Daneman)
