Auburn University Archives

Scope/Content:

Dates covered: 1920-1970. This is one series, Subject Photographs, within collection. Organized alphabetically. Documents the Alabama County Agents and their jobs as well as the economic lives of rural Alabamians. Many photographs of agents and the [white] Cooperative Extension Service headquarters, Auburn University. Also many photographs of County Agents and their farm clients at work and play. Other photos show how people in rural and small-town Alabama lived.

Historical Sketch of Agency:

Created in 1914 by the Alabama Legislature and Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API, now Auburn University) in response to the Smith-Lever Act of that year. Smith-Lever defined agricultural extension work as "the giving of instruction and practical demonstration in Agriculture and home Economics to persons not attending" the various State land-grant colleges. Such instruction was to be carried out through, but not limited to, publications and field demonstrations. For this purpose, the Federal and State governments provided funds to create a network of county agricultural agents.

The following is a list of Alabama Cooperative Extension Service Directors with their dates of service.

[Click on name for photograph and short biography]

John F. Duggar  Luther N. Duncan  P. O. Davis  E. T. York  Fred Robertson  Ralph Jones  William Taylor  Michael J. Sprott  A. Ray Cavender  Ann Thompson  Gaines Smith  Stephen B. Jones

1914-1920  1920-1937  1937-1959  1959-1962  1962-1971  1971-1974  1974-1975  1975-1980  1980-1984  1984-1994  1994-1997 [Interim Director]  1997-

 

Acquisition Date: 2-15-1980

Access: Open 

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