We reported recently on the eccentricities of the British, especially when it comes to garden maintenance. There was David Grisenthwaite, the pensioner in Scotland who meticulously recorded every instance of mowing his lawn since the 1980s, and then we met Brian Radam, curator of the British Lawnmower Museum.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!One might think that this quirky obsession with lawn mowers and all things linked would be purely an eccentricity of the British, but our cousins in America, it seems, are similarly minded when it comes to collecting and displaying lawn mowers and all related items.
Fred Archer, 83, of Missouri Valley, is the owner of Lawn Mower Museum and More, a collection of around 170 vintage and modern lawn mowers, which started life in Crescent, Missouri, before relocating to Missouri Valley after the death of Archer’s first wife. Mr Archer’s interest in lawn mowers stems from his training as a mechanic, which evolved into running his own lawn mower repair business. Despite having left the business recently, he still works there part time as well as running the Lawn Mower Museum six days a week. Mr Archer does not charge entry, but does suggest a donation towards the upkeep of the collection and the acquisition of new models. At present, Mr Archer has over 100 antique lawn mowers in his collection, and enjoys educating visitors about the history of the lawn mower and the advances in engineering that have brought us into the present day.
In Clarksville, Michigan, lawn mowers make up an important section of a collection of vintage agricultural equipment curated by 75-year-old Harold Metternick at the Farmall Acres Museum. Metternick used to work as an electrician, but his love of mechanics and engineering soon brought him into the world of refurbishment and restoration, and he is proud to say that all the equipment housed at the museum is in full working order; no mean feat for a collection that includes some of the very first farm tractors and antique freezers. Metternick only opened the museum six years ago, but had been collecting and restoring the equipment for a long time before that. Perhaps his early working relationship with the farm itself inspired him to share the history with other people before it is forgotten for ever.
Within the working collection there is a rare example of an electric ride-on lawn mower as well as very early examples of push along mowers and the sorts of machines that would be used for agricultural-scale grass cutting.
Harold Metternick’s association with the local volunteer fire brigade has also inspired him to include vintage fire trucks in the collection, which he sometimes takes out on the road for local parades.
A more modern celebration of the lawn mower is the USLMRA National Lawn Mower Racing Hall of Fame & Museum of America located in Marion, Ohio. Typical of American sporting fervour, even lawn mower racing has a Hall of Fame and dedicated fans, and Bruce Kaufman, the President of the USLMRA is proud to run the association, even if it does come with the nickname, “Mr Mow It All”. Although not technically a museum with exhibits, there is a Hall of Fame area within Kaufman’s lawn mower sales business in Marion, and anyone wanting to get involved with lawn mower racing in the USA should register an interest with the association as a matter of course. Recognised as the governing body of lawn mower racing in America, the USLMRA and their Hall of Fame are held in high regard within the racing community, and even the founder of the sport in England is part of the American Hall of Fame. It’s strange to think that a half-cut conversation in Wisborough Green has led to this!