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Last week, in celebration of American Artist Appreciation Month, Dr. Jim Connors started us on an art appreciation journey. He continues with this Footnote.
If you were an FFA member in the 1960s, 1970s, or 1980s you may remember the annual FFA Calendar program that was offered by the Future Farmers of America. The idea to produce an official FFA calendar goes back to the 1940s. At the July 17, 1946 National FFA Board of Trustees meeting the board approved a proposal from the Osborne Company to manufacture and sell FFA calendars. A similar motion was also approved at the October 1950 board meeting. At the July 1952 board meeting, the Osborne Company reported that 200,170 calendars had been sold. The minutes included the following report:
Mr. Frederick S. Wilson, Vice President of the Osborne Company, appeared before the Board and showed a pencil sketch of a proposed painting to be used on the 1954 National FFA Calendar. The painting is to feature a father and son.
Figure 1: Official 1954 Calendar of the Future Farmers of America
The painting of the Father & Son that graced the cover of the 1954 FFA Calendar also appeared on the cover of the Fall 1955 issue of The National Future Farmer magazine.
Figure 2: The National Future Farmer (Fall 1955, Vol.4, No.1)
The painting above from the 1954 FFA Calendar and Fall 1955 National Future Farmer magazine is titled “Partners.” The description inside the magazine is as follows:
PARTNERS…tells quite an interesting story. The pride a father holds in his son knows no more joyful moment than that day the boy has reached the stage of mature judgement and knowledge that justifies his being made a full partner in operating the home farm. The father will have many more years of useful work, but he welcomes the vigor of youth in his enterprise. The investment amassed over a lifetime will provide the foundation for even greater achievement by father and son continuing to work and prosper together, realizing that, in a coming generation, another boy will stand on this hill with Dad, viewing the heritage that was wrought by God and developed by the toil of partners.
The Osborne Company commissioned several well-known artists to paint artwork that appeared in the FFA calendars over the years. The titles of some of these paintings include:
- Love of Country (1951)
- The American Farmer (1952)
- Doing to Learn (1958)
- The Winner (1961)
- His Growing Herd (1964)
- Good Management (1978)
- Partners
- Soil Builders
- Useful Citizen
- Liberty Bell
- Agriculture’s Classroom
- Our American Heritage
- Changing the Sign
The original artwork that was produced for the FFA calendar is still owned by the National FFA Organization. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, the artwork hung in the offices of the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC. In 1961, when National FFA Advisor W. T. Spanton was retiring he was offered his favorite painting, “The American Farmer” as a retirement gift. He declined to take the original, but accepted a photo reprint. This led to the policy of FFA not selling or giving away any of the original pieces of art.
Several framed paintings are displayed at the National FFA Center in Indianapolis, IN. The ShopFFA website sells reprints of six paintings in various sizes. Below are four of the reprints of the FFA calendar artwork that you can purchase.
Figure 3: The Winner (Anderson, 1961)
Figure 4: Love of Country (Anderson, 1951)
Figure 5: Doing to Learn (Anderson, 1958)
Figure 6: The American Farmer (Anderson, 1952)
Artists/Illustrators
There were three main artists who produced the artwork for FFA. The artists included:
Harold Anderson (1894-1973) – Harold Anderson painted “Love of Country” for the Official 1951 FFA Calendar. His paintings graced the covers of popular magazines including The Saturday Evening Post, Boy’s Life and Capper’s Farmer. Anderson produced 14 paintings for the FFA calendar program.
William Medcalf (1920-2005) – William Medcalf worked for Brown & Bigelow, a company that produced promotional calendars, in St. Paul, MN. He worked with famous illustrators such as Norman Rockwell. Medcalf produced three paintings for the Official FFA calendar.
Arthur Sarnoff (1912-2000) – Sarnoff was a student of famed artist Andrew Wyeth. He is famous for paintings of dogs playing pool or cards. “The Hustler” was his best selling painting of dogs playing pool from the 1950s. He produced illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping magazines. He produced 19 paintings for the FFA Calendar, the most of any artist.
Conclusion
The connection between FFA and art began with the Official FFA Calendar program in the 1940s and early 1950s. Companies and artists were commissioned to produce artwork and publish the annual FFA calendar that was sold and displayed by FFA chapters across the country.
The original artwork produced for the FFA calendars was initially displayed in government offices in Washington, DC. Eventually, they made their way to the first National FFA Center in Alexandria, VA, and are now housed at the National FFA Center in Indianapolis.
These original paintings depict a long-lost environment of agriculture and FFA during the 1950s and 1960s. This would include showing the boys who were members of the FFA at that time. Any girls shown in the paintings were either school sweethearts or siblings to the FFA boys in the paintings. You will also not see any female agricultural educators/FFA advisors. The ranks of vocational agriculture teachers in the 1950s and 1960s was made up overwhelmingly of white males.
It would have been interesting if the New Farmers of America (NFA) produced its own calendar showing similar agriculture, agricultural education, and NFA scenes with African-American boys and teachers. Any modern FFA paintings or artwork produced in 2025 would certainly reflect the diversity of FFA members and advisors, including African- Americans, Asian, Hispanics, and Native Americans.
To learn more about the FFA Calendar program and some interesting tidbits about some of the artwork featured on the calendars visit the Friday Footnote titled Once Upon a Time.
References
Future Farmers of America (1946). Minutes national F.F.A. board of trustees meeting. National FFA Archives. (1946-7-17. Pdf). https://archives.indianapolis.iu.edu/items/08355e64-d33a-4d91-8002-975423b73970
Future Farmers of America (1950). Joint meeting national F.F.A. board of trustees and advisory council. National FFA Archives. (1950-10-07.pdf). https://archives.indianapolis.iu.edu/items/c5178323-afac-40e5-b9b3-271887d76984
Future Farmers of America (1952a). Minutes of the national board of student officers of the Future Farmers of America (July 21, 22, and 23, 1952). National FFA Archives. https://archives.indianapolis.iu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/c1c6a40a-6f66-4e89-9255-7a48c52909f1/content
Future Farmers of America (1952b). Minutes national FFA board of directors. National FFA Archives. (1952-07-23.pdf). https://archives.indianapolis.iu.edu/items/d68d4e02-6bfc-4a8e-8f5d-c2cc9c66d848
Future Farmers of America (1955). The National Future Farmer Magazine, 4(1). Alexandria, VA.
Harry Anderson Art (2025) https://harryandersonart.com/
Harry Anderson (artist)(2025, January 12). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Anderson_(artist)
National FFA Organization (2006). Love of country: Prints from the FFA archives. Indianapolis, IN.
National FFA Organization (2025). Vintage art prints. ShopFFA. https://shopffa.org/cat/208/VINTAGE-ART-PRINTS/