The University of Kansas
Spencer Museum of Art
Remembering the Family Farm
150 Years of American Prints
Threshing, 1941
Lithograph
Anonymous Gift, 1998.0226 The studies for this lithograph were done in 1938. Benton has remarked of this print "The scene represents the last steam thresher engine to be operated in Johnson County,N.E. Kansas. The area represented is within 25 miles of my K.C. home. We were still near the country here in 1938. I'll bet every bit of this land is now sprouting ranch houses and swim pools and teen age protestants. It is in 1974." (Fath, p. 116) The complex division of labor in running a threshing machine required: someone on the tractor to turn it off in an emergency, another on the threshing machine for safety, four people pitching in the field, eight running wagons, two or three running box wagons to the granary, one up on top dividing the grain among the neighbors who shared in the labor, and a waterboy. (Flory & Fishburn interview) Sources
