University of California, Davis

Agricultural Machinery Collection

Brief History *** Selected Pieces *** Current Student Projects

BRIEF HISTORY

The Collection's roots go back to 1937 when Hal Higgins, who later donated his extensive collection of agricultural literature to UC Davis, came across an old one-cylinder engine behind a barn up by Gridley, California.. When learning that the engine was going to be sold for scrap iron for a war effort across the seas, he convinced the owner to sell him the engine for one dollar. He then donated it to UC Davis, where in the following year students restored this circa-1885 Standish engine and displayed it at the State Fair. Most recently it was operated by students for an appearance on California Heartland, a program by the Public Broadcasting Company.

In 1962 the Collection took on some size with the donation of many items from the August Hagemann Family of Livermore, California. Among these items were the 1884 H.W. Rice straw-burning steam engine, a matching water wagon, and an 1887 Bronson Pitts Separator that all were part of a turn-of-the-century wheat farming operation.

It was later around 1970 that an enthusiastic group of students and a staff member took an interest in these items when it was learned that the old barn that was home to these items was going to be torn down to make room for a freeway interchange. Their interest and hard work led to the formation of the Antique Mechanics Club and subsequently years and years of travelling around the state collecting machinery and artifacts for the growing collection.

The Collection soon began a series of moves, because initial space for storage and restoration in Bainer Hall, the engineering building, quickly became inadequate. So, the operation relocated to TB22, a small steel building on the West side of campus. Recognition by many people of the students' dedication and effort led Ben Sharpsteen, of the Class of '16, to donate $40,000 and to motivate the Cal Aggie Foundation, now the UCDavis Foundation, to match his contribution and establish a permament site for the Collection and its related activities. It was in this manner that four old airplane hangars and a fenced yard were "purchased" at the existing UC Airport even further West of the main campus. The new facility was dedicated in 1976 and still serves as the central location for the program.

With all of the available space once again used up, in 1997 after several years of evaluating items in the collection the first of a series of modest reductions to the inventory got underway. A number of decrepit, duplicate, not-so-rare, or not-very-likely-to-be-restored pieces of harvesting and threshing equipment were passed on to another local collecting effort. Later, seventeen trucks of early vintage and in very poor condition were sold in the first ever sale at the Collection. Currently there are plans to sell a number of tractors, with proceeds from past and future sales expected to help form the corpus of the upcoming endowment fund.

Over all of these years, most all activities have been conducted on a volunteer basis. The Antique Mechanics Club with the assistance of alumni, staff, professors, community members, companys, and many other friends has worked tirelessly to help preserve, learn, and teach California's rich agricultural heritage. Join us as we continue to celebrate mechanical ingenuity in early agriculture, and help us inspire agricultural and non-agricultural students alike to continue the work.

Thank you for taking a minute to read this. Please watch for an expansion of the Club's and Collection's histories through links in these words.. Now, we invite you to now enjoy a growing selection of Collection pieces pictured and described on the following pages.

Selected Pieces in the Collection