McCormick-IHC Collection
History of the McCormick-IHC Collection
After the death of Cyrus Hall McCormick in 1884, his widow and children hired secretaries to collect manuscripts and memorabilia relating to the inventor and to the history of the agricultural implement industry. In 1915, the McCormick family hired historian Herbert Kellar to manage the collection, and to direct an organization called the "McCormick Historical Association." A few years later, the association moved out of its headquarters in the McCormick mansion at 675 Rush Street in Chicago, and into a large stone carriage house at the rear of the property. The carriage house was remodeled to include a library, museum, offices, and facilities for research. Kellar collected papers, photographs and artifacts at this location for the next thirty years. During this time the collection grew from ten thousand to over one million items, including the papers of Cyrus Hall McCormick, records of the various McCormick companies in Chicago prior to 1902, and a number of collections relating to agriculture and to McCormick's native state of Virginia.
In 1949, the land and buildings of the McCormick Historical Association were sold in an estate settlement and the collection was placed in storage. Cyrus' daughter Anita McCormick Blaine assigned Herbert Kellar the task of finding a permanent home for it. At the time, the McCormick Collection was considered one of the most important collections of manuscripts in private hands, and was highly coveted. Over the next two years Kellar traveled over fifteen thousand miles and investigated thirty institutions.
One of the institutions Kellar visited was the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. The Society's director Clifford Lord lobbied vigorously for the collection. He argued that the Society would make an ideal home for it. It was located in the Midwest, close to the McCormick's Chicago home. In addition, the Society had been around for over one hundred years, had the necessary storage and research facilities, and had a national reputation for its outstanding collections. Finally, it was affiliated with the University of Wisconsin, which had a world class history department and agricultural school.
Kellar ultimately agreed. The fact that he had attended school at the University of Wisconsin and that his wife was a Wisconsin native may have also played a role in his decision. In 1951, based on Kellar's recommendation, Mrs. Blaine donated the McCormick Collection to the State Historical Society. The Society hired Kellar and his wife Lucile to continue to manage the collection. Kellar died in 1955, but Lucile continued as the McCormick curator well into the 1960s. In the meantime, the McCormick family continued to donate additional material. By the time Lucile Kellar retired in the mid 1960s, the collection had grown to include the business and personal papers of Nettie Fowler, Mary Virginia, Stanley, Harold, Anita, and Cyrus McCormick Jr. The International Harvester Company also made large donations of material to the Society. The company shipped several truckloads of farm implements and models to Stonefield, the Society's farm and craft museum at Cassville in 1959. In addition, when the old McCormick Works at Chicago was closed, the company donated nineteen tons of financial ledgers dating back to the first McCormick companies.
After Lucile Kellar's retirement, a succession of archivists served as "experts" on the McCormick Collection. Much work was done to preserve the collection and make it more accessible to the public. In addition to creating numerous indexes and descriptive lists, the Society published an extensive Guide to the McCormick Collection, and completed a grant-funded project to preserve and describe over twelve thousand glass plate negatives of the International Harvester Company. During this period the papers of Fowler McCormick and the records of the McCormick Estates were added to the collection.
Then, in the late 1980s, Navistar International Transportation Corporation contacted the State Historical Society about material still in its corporate archives. The company had recently sold its agricultural equipment line and changed its name from International Harvester to Navistar. Now it wanted to donate a portion of its old International Harvester records. The State Historical Society, already home to the McCormick Collection, was the natural destination for this material. After some negotiation, Navistar donated over one thousand cubic feet of advertising literature, operator's manuals, company publications, press releases, photographs, films and other public relations and marketing materials. Brooks McCormick made a substantial gift of money to help preserve and manage the collection.
Today the McCormick-International Harvester Collection consists of over twelve million manuscript pages, two hundred and fifty thousand photographs, and three hundred films. In addition, the Society's museum, library and historic sites hold thousands of books, agricultural newspapers, machines, models, toys, and pieces of clothing that were donated by the McCormick family and International Harvester. (see also selected bibliography).
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