At Slate Run Farm, rural Ohio life in the late 19th century is presented through the typical daily and seasonal work of an ordinary family farm using period tools, equipment, livestock, vegetables, and crops common to the state. The family that lived there was not famous, and nothing exceptional happened there, but like other farm families they faced daily challenges and enjoyed their successes. As progress brought labor-saving devices and knowledge of an ever-widening world, it also brought tensions, and families and communities adapted and reacted to these changes. In 1880 they lived in modern times while already looking back on changes they had seen in their own lives. Their major concerns were the same basic human needs people still have: food, shelter, clothing, and a way to obtain goods that could make life easier, happier, and healthier.