Friday, October 23, 2020

Farms of the Future (1957)


 


This is my 700th post and I have a treat for you.

I found a Farms of the Future calendar for 1957. These were distributed by the Shell Chemical Company.  I blogged about Your 1958 Shell Fertilizer Coloring Book here 3 years ago on Dec 22, 2017 but the illustrations were in black and white.

I think they did these incredible space-age calendars for several years. The full color illustrations by Don Bloodgood and Forrest Shaffer of a future that never came are wonderful. While not intended for children, they have a child-like character to them. Each month has a "scientific" description of how this future might be possible. 



























Between robot farm workers, arctic farms, and radioactively accelerated seeds maybe we are lucky we are not living in THAT future😖

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful!

    I remember some of the old Shell calendars, with futuristic cars. Boy, did I wish I had kept them stored somewhere safe.

    Congratulations with your 700th post. It is always a joy to see those old inspiring books.

    Thank you.

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  2. Congratulations on your 700th post! This has been a weekly destination for me and love the books and artwork you've been posting. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. I truly appreciate it!

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  3. Wow! Thanks for 700 posts.

    The funny thing is that, if you look carefully, a lot of this stuff is actually in use, it just looks boring. Farmers do use drones and GPS and monitors and computerized tractors and so on. Even urban indoor agriculture sort of fits in, but not because we are short on land, but rather because we value fresh produce so highly. The biggest difference is probably that the need for capital is so high that farm country has seriously depopulated.

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