Name/TitleColour print

About this objectThis shows a girl feeding chickens and another about to milk cows. A boy is feeding pigs. The background is a farm yard. There are two inscriptions, the bottom left reads: 'Macmillans Geography Pictures' and the centre inscription is the title, ' Life on a Dairy Farm.'

Richard Hall, Research Volunteer:
A series of educational posters, from a larger collection, depicting agricultural and rural scenes of food production and harvesting from across the globe.

The company who produced the posters are known as Macmillan Education Ltd. The company was founded in London in 1843 and have grown to become one of the world’s largest suppliers of educational materials. According to the company’s website, the company was founded by brother’s Daniel and Alexander Macmillan with an aim of publishing the works of British writers, including; Tennyson, Hardy and Kipling.

Returning home following the First World War, Harold Macmillan (later to become a Conservative British Prime Minister) joined the family firm in 1920 as a Junior Partner, and became Chairman in 1964. His direction led the company to establish themselves as a world leading educational publisher. It was during this time that the posters in our collection were produced.

The images in our posters could be seen as representing an ‘idealised’ view of the world; neglecting as they do, some of the conditions in which the people in the posters were working at the time. This can offer us a glimpse into the world of our colonial past.

You could also argue that these images promote gender stereotyping depicting the differing roles expected of men and women in the production of food. However, it is important not to lose sight of the period in which these posters were produced, judging them contemporaneously with everyday life at the time, rather than the way we might think today.

What we can learn from these posters is about how the world of food production has changed by the introduction of technology into farming and agriculture. Many of the tasks seen here, such as ploughing, milling and milking, required significant labour to complete. The same tasks today, thanks to modern technology, can be completed more efficiently and with less human effort than these images portray.

MakerMacmillan and Co Ltd

Date Madec1940 - c1960

Periodc1940 - c1960

Inscription and Marksinscription:printed:bottom,centre:title: A DAIRY FARM IN EIRE
inscription:printed:bottom,left: Macmillans Geography Pictures

MeasurementsHeight: 433mm
Width: 535mm

Object Typeprint

Object numberSTMEA:1989-4.174

Copyright LicenceAttribution - Non-commercial (cc)