A hundred years ago, radio was rapidly becoming a familiar part of the home, whether it was in the city or on the farm. The cover of the January 1923 issue of Wireless Age, above, shows an idyllic scene of radio by the hearth.

But radio was more than just a pastime for the urban upper class.  It was rapidly making it’s way to the farm, and it was bringing rural people closer to the city.  The magazine contained a feature describing how radio was rapidly becoming a necessity on the farm.  Farmers could receive up-to-the-minute market reports, and the main complaint from farmers was that they were being read too fast to write down.  And weather warnings could make a huge difference in the safety and profitability of farm life.  But in addition to the purely practical, radio was changing rural life by allowing residents to hear news, concerts, and lectures.  Shown here are Mrs. Albertina Schockweiler, her daughter and grandson, as the pull in a program on their farm in Osseo, Minnesota.