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A new exhibit featuring the Board of Agriculture Glass Negative Photograph Collection is now on display at the Delaware Public Archives.
Running through the middle of June, the exhibit focuses on the photographs of Roydon Hammond, a seed analyst with the Delaware Board of Agriculture, who took more than 2,000 photographs of scenes throughout the First State during the 1920s and 1930s.

Mr. Hammond believed the glass negative process of photography would provide him with the sharpest images.

The 1920s and 1930s were a period of great change in Delaware's agriculture. The once-great peach industry had reached its lowest point, while the improvement of the highway system had stimulated the production of truck crops and dairy products. Delaware's most important agricultural activity, broiler chicken production, was developed at this time and experienced rapid growth that helped soften the effects of the Great Depression on the state's farmers.

In addition to agricultural subjects, Mr. Hammond also photographed other areas of Delaware life in the 1920s and 1930s.

A wide range of topics included business and industry, churches, city and town scenes, historic markers and monuments, houses, portraits, public buildings, recreation, schools, and transportation. Because the photographs were used for promotional and tourism purposes, scenes depicting the Great Depression are not present. To view the entire collection online, visit de.gov/deagphotos.