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In one, a farmworker sharpens his cradle scythe, with its fingerlike projections, to gather straw in East Meadow, circa 1905; in another, men sit in the linotype room of The Long Island City Star, around 1908; yet another photograph captures the bustle of Brooklyn’s Wallabout Market, once a major destination for farmers, including those from Long Island, and the grocers who bought from them.

It look's like the home of a traveling tinker, cluttered with gadgets, junk and such craft objects as an old cradle scythe, an Algerian blanket, a tom-tom, a coffee table made from a square sheet of aluminum, calabash rattles and rattles made of beer cans filled with pebbles.

Each one must select his wood, cure, fashion, and fit his own ax with a handle, grind and swing it properly, as well as cradle, scythe and sickle.

With my cradle scythe, feeling brisk and blithe,   In the breeze-tempered heat of this fine day; I'll haste to the field with the wheaten yield,   And there will I manfully cut my way.