• Primary source analysis: Fordson N Model tractor

Object biographies are predominantly used in archaeology to understand the history of an artefact. This approach can be applied to historic periods in a similar way, to challenge and develop different perspectives on the past. This essay demonstrates how successfully the object biography approach can be applied to the study of early 20th century Britain. As a case study, this essay analyses the life-history of a Fordson N Model tractor, dating to the mid to late 1930s, currently kept at The Museum of English Rural Life, Reading. By considering the birth (design and manufacture), life (purchase and use), and death (renovation), themes of rurality, mechanization, consumerism, and modernization are explored through the prism of a 1930s tractor.