Abstract: Correspondence and other papers of Anita McCormick Blaine, a Chicago philanthropist, consisting of letters, telegrams, and summaries of telephone conversations; reports of committees, boards, and organizations; speeches, essays, and random notes; financial statements and ledgers; clippings; and photographs; concerning her absorbing interests in education, improvement in social and economic conditions, international understanding, and world peace, and her relations with members of the McCormick family and their friends.

Abstract: Records of the office which handled the interests of descendants of Chicago industrialist Cyrus H. McCormick, Sr. The McCormick Estates office dealt with business and legal matters for the family; managed their many income-producing properties; reported on all financial transactions in behalf of the two incompetent children, Mary Virginia and Stanley; did the bookkeeping for a variety of trusts and syndicates set up by the McCormicks; handled securities in the form of stocks and bonds; gave accountings of notes and loans; and frequently rendered aid to family members regarding private matters. After the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company's merger into the International Harvester Company in 1902, the McCormick Estates office took on further responsibilities. Although all manufacturing was taken over by International Harvester, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company under its own name continued to receive payments for products previously purchased on credit (until 1910) and to administer a pension system for employees (until 1922). McCormick Estates staff served as advisors and accountants for the Company in these interests as well as for individual members of the McCormick family.

Abstract: Papers of Harold Fowler McCormick, a Chicago industrialist with the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and the International Harvester Company; consisting of correspondence, notes, business records, appointment books, speeches, clippings, and printed items. These concern financial interests, civic groups, personal and family life, and his publicized peace plan during World War I. Of his business activities, the Belle City Malleable Iron Company is best documented. A small portion of the collection consists of papers of his daughter, Muriel, documenting her interest in postwar relief work, the theater, and Chicago grand opera.

Abstract: Primarily original and typescript copies of letters written by Nettie Fowler McCormick, a philanthropist and wife of the inventor Cyrus Hall McCormick. The correspondence relates to the business affairs, family matters, people, and institutions that Mrs. McCormick aided or was interested in.

Abstract: Advertising literature, photographs, color transparencies, publications, price lists, press releases, reports, correspondence, minutes, production records, and other audio and visual materials documenting the products and activities of the International Harvester Company. The company's product lines included trucks, tractors, farm implements, refrigerators, construction equipment, and lawn and garden equipment. The records document nearly every facet of the company's operations, including labor relations, employee activities, marketing, advertising, public relations, sales, finances, manufacturing, engineering, foreign operations, military contracts, experimental machinery, factories, and dealerships. International Harvester's corporate archives created this series over a period of several years. The files in the Original Collection are in random order and a file number has been assigned to each folder or item. Researchers must use a database to find relevant folder titles and their corresponding box and file numbers.

Abstract: Papers of Kellar, a historian, researcher in agricultural history, and curator for the McCormick Historical Association from 1915 to 1955. The papers consist of personal and professional correspondence; speeches, research notes, and bibliographies relating to Cyrus Hall McCormick, genealogy, the reaper, patent cases, and agriculture; correspondence and other materials documenting Kellar's active membership in professional organizations; and the papers of Solon Robinson, agricultural journalist, and Everett E. Edwards, agricultural historian.

Abstract: A collection of research reports, speeches, biographical essays, term papers, masters' theses, and doctoral dissertations compiled and written by students, historians, and independent researchers. These are all related to agricultural implement industrialist Cyrus Hall McCormick, the McCormick family, and its companies; many of these are based on manuscripts in the McCormick Collection itself. Arranged alphabetically by author or title.

Abstract: Photographs and other graphic materials relating to the family of Cyrus Hall McCormick. Included are cartes-de-visite, lithographs, informal photographs, formal studio photographs, tintypes, painted porcelain, daguerreotypes, and photo albums featuring the children and grandchildren of Cyrus Hall McCormick; the Fowler, Spice, and Merrick families; the Robert McCormick family; and friends of the McCormicks. One item of particular note is the 1923 death mask of Nettie Fowler McCormick.

Abstract: Papers of Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor of the reaper and a Chicago industrialist, comprising correspondence, memoranda, and letterbooks concerning the growth of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in both the domestic and foreign fields, and dealing with McCormick's many other interests, particularly the Presbyterian Church and several charities; his activities as a member of the state and national Democratic party; and his investments, chiefly in Chicago real estate, railroads, and mines. Also included are deeds, contracts, investment proposals, and other documents. Some of the letters are to or from McCormick's wife Nettie Fowler, their son Cyrus Jr., and others associated with the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The earliest dated items were written or received by Cyrus' father, Robert McCormick, and by other family members.

Abstract: Black and white photographic prints showing factories, office buildings, dealerships, branch houses, employees, tractors, farm implements, construction equipment, trucks, and a wide range of corporate activities of the International Harvester Company. Most of the photographs were taken for advertising, public relations, or engineering purposes. They were used in company publications, as source material for advertising literature, and to record engineering developments. The photos document manufacturing, engineering, public relations, advertising, labor relations, military or defense contracts, agriculture, farm labor, industrial labor, office labor, transportation, cities, towns, rural landscapes, small businesses, trucking, fairs, exhibits, and recreation. Also included are photographs of experimental tractors, farm implements, construction equipment, and engines. The photographs were originally mounted in bound volumes. The photos have been removed from the volumes and placed in boxes and folders. The original volume and page order has been retained however.

Abstract: Advertising catalogs, leaflets, handbills, trade cards, brochures and posters produced by the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and its predecessor companies, including: McCormick & Gray (1847); McCormick & Ogden (1849); C.H. McCormick & Company (1850-1859); C.H. McCormick & Bros. (1860-1866); C.H. McCormick & Bro. (1867-1874); C.H. and L.J. McCormick (1874-1879); and McCormick Harvesting Machine Company (1879-1902). The company manufactured horse-drawn reapers, mowers and grain binders. Also included are newspaper clippings (1867-1893), parts catalogs (1854-1897), and 124 oversize posters.

Abstract: Records of the Nettie Fowler McCormick Biographical Association, formed in 1932 by Mrs. McCormick's children. Virgina Roderick was employed as secretary, and served in this capacity until 1956 when the work of the Association was completed and her biography, Nettie Fowler McCormick, was published. The papers are composed of Miss Roderick's correspondence with individuals, organizations, and institutions in the search for letters and information; recollections and interviews she obtained from hundreds of persons who had known Mrs. McCormick; and both original and copied letters relating to Mrs. McCormick, some of which Harold originally had in his files. Included also are copies of letters from Eldridge M. Fowler to Cyrus H. Jr. concerning Mrs. McCormick, and letters and notes that James G.K. McClure Sr. had collected for a memoir of Mrs. McCormick. In addition, there are copies of manuscripts and correspondence loaned by members of the Fowler, Spicer, Merick, and McCormick families, including Fowler family business papers dating back to 1802. Much genealogical and biographical information is filed, as are many clippings. Miss Roderick's own notes, memoranda, reports, working papers, and manuscript for her book are included.

Abstract: Blueprints and drawings of buildings and properties owned by the family of Cyrus Hall McCormick, including Nettie Fowler McCormick, Cyrus McCormick Jr., Harold McCormick, Mary Virginia McCormick, and Stanley McCormick. Properties include Walden, Walnut Grove, Caravels, Clayton Lodge, Harbor Point, Oaklands, House in the Woods, and Kildare. These and other properties were located in Chicago, Illinois; Lake Forest, Illinois; Cohassett, Massachusetts; Huntsville, Alabama; Raphine, Virginia; Harbor Springs, Michigan; and Toronto, Canada. Also included are drawings for McCormick family investment properties and charities, including Assuit College (Egypt); Astral Apartments (Brooklyn, New York); Harrison Avenue Estate (Boston, Massachusetts); McCormick Hospital (Chiengmai, Siam (Chiang Mai, Thailand)); University of Nanking (Nanjing, China); Pyengyang Christian Academy (Korea); Pimlico Buildings (London, England); Riverside Buildings (Brooklyn, New York); Shantung Christian University (Tsinan (Jinan), China); Soho Estate (London, England); Tusculum College (Greenville, Tennessee); Union Theological College at Paak Hak Tung (Canton (Guangzhou), China); Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church in Chosen (Pyengyang, Korea); and the Dr. C.O. Gray Residence (Greenville, Tennessee). Several genealogical charts are also present as well as drawings from Harold F. McCormick aviation experiments.

Abstract: Papers of McCormick, a third-generation executive of the International Harvester Company; consisting mainly of materials relating to the company and to McCormick's personal business interests, plus a few personal papers. Included are correspondence, committee reports, Executive Council minutes, financial statements, magazine and newspaper clippings, pamphlets and other printed materials, speeches, and other papers. The majority of the papers cover the years 1941-1958. Included among the International Harvester materials is information on the 1946 reorganization of the company, on their 1947 lowering of prices to help balance the national economy, on McCormick's business philosophy and influences upon its development, and on many other topics. Other files concern McCormick's involvement in various national governmental economic agencies and committees. Miscellaneous personal papers contain a Rockefeller family genealogy, and earlier family correspondence.

Abstract: Operator's, parts, and service manuals for machinery produced by the International Harvester Company and its predecessor companies. Included are manuals for farm implements, tractors, trucks, engines, construction equipment, refrigerators, air conditioners, and other products produced for domestic and foreign markets. Operator's manuals may include set-up instructions, operating instructions, and parts lists. Parts manuals, or catalogs, usually include lists of parts used over several years on many different models, as well as non-dimensional drawings of parts and assemblies. Service manuals include overhaul, maintenance, and/or repair instructions. The series includes relatively few service manuals, and is most complete for manuals produced before 1960. Additions include some advertising literature and copies of service bulletins for International trucks, including “Shop Talks” and “Service Section Letters.”

Abstract: Papers consisting of correspondence, speeches, articles, maps, telegrams, newspaper clippings, financial statements, accounts, and receipts, reports, and bulletins relating to the business and personal interests of Chicago industrialist Cyrus McCormick, Jr. The papers concern McCormick family activities and estates, the International Harvester Company, United States-Russian relations, and organizations and investments involving McCormick. Included are materials on the Elizabeth McCormick Memorial Fund and its financing of open air schools; minutes and other records from McCormick family conferences; information on the estates of Harriet Hammond McCormick and Nettie Fowler McCormick, and on the affairs of Stanley R. McCormick; correspondence, reports, and minutes of the McCormick Theological Seminary; correspondence and records on Princeton University and the Young Men's Christian Association; information on Russia in general and on the 1917 Root Commission; and records of many financial investments, especially the Beaver Cove Lumber and Pulp Company, Ltd., a major investment in the timber industry on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.

Abstract: Legal documents filed in civil and possibly non-felony criminal cases and other proceedings before the court. Contents of the files vary but may include summonses, complaints, motions, depositions, testimony, orders, judgments, verdicts, and appeals. Boxes B through Z and 1 through 161 are arranged in original drawer number order. Boxes 162 through 168 contain miscellaneous court cases that were never refiled by the circuit court. Cases that went to the Wisconsin Supreme Court are found in these miscellaneous boxes.

Abstract: Records from the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company's early and continuing controversies with other inventors and implement manufacturers. Files from lawsuits are composed of briefs, records, arguments, exhibits, and specifications used in proceedings before civil courts and the U.S. Patent Office. Included also are descriptions of McCormick family patents; volumes showing the history of agricultural machinery patents, some dating back to seventeenth-century Britain; and a manuscript book of the McCormicks' own assignor-assignee patent records between 1860 and 1880.

Abstract: Papers of Stanley R. McCormick, youngest son of industrialist Cyrus Hall and Nettie Fowler McCormick, who became mentally incompetent at the age of thirty-two; consisting of correspondence, notes, minutes, financial accounts, medical reports and charts, legal documents, and transcripts of court hearings. These concern his early business interests, arrangements for his care, controversies between the McCormick's and his wife Katharine, whom he married in 1904, and reports of medical consultants.

Abstract: Letters and other papers which McCormick had kept in his home rather than in his office. The contents of many of the folders are fragmentary, and in effect supplement correspondence or records in other McCormick series. Many of the papers relate to organizations and educational projects, especially the YWCA and YMCA. Included are letters by, to, or about numerous members and relatives of the McCormick family, letters from personal friends, material relating to McCormick's patronage of musicians and musical events, and data on household expenses and maintenance; correspondence with the Rev. James G. K. McClure, president of Lake Forest College and president of the McCormick Theological Seminary, and his wife; and recollections of ten men employed by McCormick, Deering, and other agricultural implement manufacturers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Abstract: Photographs and other visual materials, relating to the International Harvester Company and its predecessor, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. Included are photographs, broadsides, original artwork, printed material, and posters mainly concerning promotion of the company product line through advertising and exhibitions. Also included are photographs, engravings, and blueprints of the company factories.

Abstract: Domestic and foreign correspondence and reports received by the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company (1879-1902) and its predecessors, C.H. McCormick and Co. (1848-1859), C.H. McCormick & Bros. (1859-1866), C.H. McCormick & Bro. (1866-1874), and C.H. and L.J. McCormick (1874-1879). Included are letters from company agents, field experts, shippers, suppliers and customers regarding orders, sales, credit, shipments, price and performance of machines and repairs, field trials, improvements and inventions, competition in the implement business, crop yields and damage due to insects and weather, rural and foreign economic conditions, travel and branch office expenses, and employment opportunities. Letters, legal documents, drawings, and plans from patent experts and inventors concern cases of infringement, experimental machines, the design of new devices, and proposed improvements. Reports from agents are primarily contracts and financial accounts of machine sales, deliveries, and inventories, debt collection, and expenses. Among the subjects documented are the structure and activities of the company's domestic and foreign sales force, the market for farm machinery, the expansion of trade, customer relations, activities of the Grange and the company's response, and patent issues. While most of the correspondence is addressed to the company's home office in Chicago, Illinois, a small portion of the letters are directed to a particular manager or official. Copies of outgoing letters are sometimes found in this series, particularly in later years. A small amount (0.4 c.f.) of original correspondence, reports, and patent drawings has been retained for exhibit purposes.

Abstract: Papers of Chicago philanthropist Anita Blaine, received from her granddaughter in 1971, composed of diaries, some of her most private correspondence, information relating to her own estate and those of her husband and son, and papers of her husband and son.

Abstract: Records of the International Harvester Company's 1931 centennial celebration of McCormick's invention of the reaper, consisting of correspondence, committee reports, clippings, and photographs. Correspondence is chiefly that of members of the McCormick family, officials of International Harvester, Herbert A. Kellar of the McCormick Historical Association, planning committees, and representatives responsible for managing and reporting on the event in the United States and abroad. Hundreds of clippings, mounted and unmounted, deal with advance publicity, scholarship awards, and coverage of celebration activities in practically every state and many foreign countries. Five volumes of photographs picture the development of McCormick harvesting machines and events commemorating the centennial, including special observances at Washington and Lee University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Abstract: Primarily monthly, quarterly, and annual statements of the income from real estate owned wholly or in part by Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr., or administered by him as trustee or executor. Reports on trusts for Mary Virginia McCormick, Stanley McCormick, Elizabeth Morss, and Sarah E. Stickney are included here, as well as reports on the estates of Elizabeth McCormick and Nettie Fowler McCormick. In addition, a small number of reports are given on properties owned entirely by Harold McCormick, Stanley McCormick (before his property was placed in trust), or Anita McCormick Blaine. Besides real estate reports, more general financial reports by the trustees of Mary Virginia and Stanley are also included, along with legal documents appointing administrators of Stanley's property in 1906 and 1909. Also present are reports on the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co., and material on the proposed additions to the Reaper Block in 1919.