How did you check the weather this morning? Maybe you used an app, got a push update from your favorite meteorologist or tuned into your local public radio station. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, one of the best ways to get your forecast was through a Farmers’ Bulletin.
These papers were early versions of weather reports put together every evening except Sunday in Washington, D.C., and then sent out to thousands of community post offices throughout the country. These bulletins were information lifelines for rural America, and one of them from 1879 now sits in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
Curator Lynn Heidelbaugh explains how the Farmers’ Bulletin system first developed and why it was so critical for a growing nation.
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