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Animals & Humans: A Relationship Preserved in Archives – Part Two

Animals & Humans: A Relationship Preserved in Archives – Part Two

This is part two of a three-part blog series on “Animals & Humans: A Relationship Preserved in Archives”. In part two, let’s take a look at how animals have helped provide sustenance to humans through farming, hunting, and fishing.


By Megan Lockhart, Archives Technician

***Read last week’s blog article for part one of this series.

Farming

When we think of the equipment used in modern farming, many of us think of mechanical equipment like tractors, combines, sprayers, rippers, and the list goes on. Modern equipment can be used without the need for some source of strength to pull them. Of course, historically this was not the case. Before we had farm equipment powered by engines, farmers had to rely on animals to assist with their daily tasks. Horses and oxen were a necessity for many aspects of farming, from plowing the fields to harvesting, these heavyweight animals were used to pull and sometimes help with operating equipment, and with the transportation of goods and products. Without the assistance of these animals, crop farming at a large scale was not very feasible.

Animal products are of course another form of sustenance for humans, from milk to eggs, and animal meat, humans rely on animals for a lot of our food. We also obtain other useful and essential products from animals, such as wool from sheep. Check out some photos of Oxford County farm animals in action below, from the collection at the Oxford County Archives.

A team of horses (two) pulling equipment for corn harvesting in a corn field. Two men are riding on the back of the cart. A man is driving a tractor alongside the horses.

Farmers clearing a cornfield with a corn loader driven by Tom Way on the farm of Timothy Dunham in Salford, Ontario. 25 September 1948.

  

Group of children are surrounding a pig sty. The children are leaning against the pig sty fence, looking down at the pigs. The children are holding papers in their hands. There are four large pigs in the sty.  

Group of children and youths observing pigs in a sty on a farm. Circa 1953.

  

  Man driving a horse-drawn plough. Four large draft horses are pulling the plough through soil in a field.

A farmer driving a four horse-drawn plow through a field in Oxford County. Circa 1946.

  

  A man crouched beside a sheep in a farmyard. The man is holding out his arms around the sheep, using his arms to measure the length of the sheep. The sheep has light coloured wool and a black head and legs. The man is wearing a suit and eyeglasses.

A man measuring the length of a sheep with his arms, on an unknown farm. Circa 1947.

  

  A shirtless man is sitting on a stool milking a Holstein cow.

An unidentified man milking a cow in a barn. Circa 1940s.

  

  A small blonde boy is standing in front of a cow pen with a green hose, providing water to cows in a trough behind the wire pen. The boy is wearing tan shorts with black rubber boots, a white undershirt and red plaid shirt that is open. Light brown Jersey cows are gather around the trough drinking the water, a few are in the field in the background.

Peter Rosenburg, age 6, watering cows on a farm, 1967. From the Princess Elizabeth Women's Institute (North Oxford District) Tweedsmuir volume 6.

  

  Two women are standing in a farmyard wearing long dresses and aprons. One woman has a large-brimmed hat on her head. The second woman is holding a cat in her arms. Behind the women are piles of planks of wood. There is also a large pot hung over a fire. A group of chickens are standing at the women's feet. The women are making soap in the pot.

"Mrs. Stewart" and daughter Bessie making soap in the farmyard with chickens at their feet. Bessie is holding a cat in her arms. Circa 1908-1912. From the Plattsville Women's Institute Tweedsmuir volume 3.

  

Hunting and Fishing

Domesticated animals aren’t the only types of animals that provide sustenance to humans. The human species has been hunting wild animals for over 1 million years for food, but also for materials for clothing, and even tools! Humans also fish in the waterways, lakes, ponds, and oceans. Our archival collection is filled with photographs of people fishing in and around Oxford County. We also have a “Wild Life Cook Book” in our collection that includes recipes for hunted game that we are familiar with currently, such as deer, rabbit, partridge, duck, etc., along with game that many of us no longer consume in North American culture, like muskrat or squirrel. Peruse some of the recipes from the cookbook below and some of our favourite fishing photographs from the collection.

*The “Wild Life Cook Book” was compiled by the Oxford Fish & Game Protection Association in Woodstock, Ontario. Published by Gateway Publishing Co. Ltd. (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada). Circa 1970s.

First page of the

  Recipes inside the Wildlife Cook Book. Recipes include Camp Size Bear Stew, Muskrat Meat Load, and instructions on how to cook a muskrat through boiling then pan frying.

Recipes for "Camp Size Bear Stew", "Muskrat Meat Loaf", and instructions on how to cook a muskrat including removing the fat and musk glands, then boiling and cooking the muskrat in a skillet.

  

  Recipes for cooking beaver, muskrat, porcupine, rabbit, and

Recipes for cooking beaver, muskrat, porcupine, rabbit, and raccoon; including a recipe for "sweet pickled beaver" and beaver stew that can be made "in the bush".

  

  Two boys are holding fishing rods, with one of the boys holding a fish in his right hand. The boys are standing in front of a guard rail by a creek. Trees and hydro lines are in the background. Both of the boys are wearing rubber boots. The one boy is wear a sweat and trousers. The other boy is wearing jeans, with suspender and a plaid buttoned shirt.

Two boys posing with fishing rods and the fish they caught in front of an unknown creek or river. Circa 1949.

  

  Two men posing in front of an automobile with a string of small fish they caught. They are both wearing rubber boots. The one man is wearing pants with a plaid buttoned shirt, sleeves rolled, up and sunglasses. The other man is wearing trousers with a light coloured t-shirt and hat.

Two men posing with a string of fish they caught. Circa 1949.

  

  A man is posing in front of a white screen holding up a large pike fish he caught.

An unidentified man posing with a large pike he caught. Circa 1940s.

  

  A postcard featuring a colourized photograph of a woman seated on what appears to be a dam made of a fallen tree, sticks, mud, and grass. She is seated on the fallen tree, holding a homemade fishing pole in her hand. She is wearing a white blouse with a long grey skirt. She has a large decorative hat on top of her head. She is fishing in the Thames River outside of Woodstock, Ontario. In the background there is a sign posted on a tree that reads

A postcard featuring a woman fishing on the Thames River near Woodstock, Ontario. Circa 1910s.

  

Check out next week’s blog article for “part two” of this three-part series: “Animals & Humans: A Relationship Preserved in Archives”.