Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library

Rural Electrification in Ohio

eng

videorecording

Rural Electrification in Ohio

1035143213

Originally produced by The Orchard in 1940

57

This program presents three documentaries produced in the early 1940s by the USDA{u2019}s Rural Electrification Administration (REA). An ambitious collaboration between a government agency and a host of acclaimed entertainment professionals, the films feature the real-life Parkinson family and were made to encourage farmers to take out government loans to modernize their farms.. POWER AND THE LAND shows the Parkinsons laboring to run a dairy without benefit of electricity before obtaining an REA loan and then gladly giving up their manual water pump, kerosene lanterns, and horse-drawn plow. Along with BIP GOES TO TOWN and WORST OF FARM DISASTERS, the film now offers a close look at the domestic routines of a bygone era while capturing a time when many Americans, for a variety of reasons, were compelled to trade tradition for efficiency

live action