Temple Grandin's French Curve
date: label: date made
content: before 1990
notes: label: Description
content: A french curve drafting tool used by Temple Grandin to create designs for animal handling facilities.
label: Description
content: Temple Grandin is an animal scientist and autism advocate. She is best known for her work pioneering animal welfare from within the beef cattle industry.
label: Description
content: Starting in the 1980s Grandin convinced the beef cattle industry that animal welfare paid. Her approach was different and remarkable in a world of animal scientists and feedlot farmers who were hesitant to engage with animal activists or even in the study of animal behavior. She used her own sensitivity to sound and touch as a guide to the experience of animals in artificial surroundings. A magazine article from the mid-1980s claims: “She’ll actually crawl through a chute system to see what the animal sees. Once she immersed herself in a dip-vat for cattle.” Grandin was acutely aware, that understanding animal behavior was basic not only to the design of animal handling facilities but the daily tasks of animal management.
label: Description
content: Grandin’s entire career was thus built on animals’ abilities to respond differently to various environments. Grandin forcefully argued that by understanding animal agency and responding accordingly feedlot operators could protect and enhance their investments and generate more value in their business enterprise. She won many accolades for her work, becoming a leader in an otherwise male-centric industry, despite her challenges with autism.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Agriculture
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Temple Grandin
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0156.2
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0156.2
label: accession number
content: 2022.0156
objectType: label: Object Name
content: French Curve
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 in x 6 3/4 in; 10.16 cm x 17.145 cm