The Home Files consist of assorted letters and other papers which Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr., 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 in the Historical Society's holdings.
The files are in two groups: Part 1 is the Original Collection and Part 2 are Additions received in the Archives in 1968. Each part is arranged alphabetically by name of person, organization, or topic.
Original Collection
Many of the papers relate to organizations and educational projects, mainly for women and girls, which were nominated in the early 1920's as prospective recipients of funds in memory of McCormick's first wife, Harriet Hammond McCormick (1862-1921). Correspondence and reports of Anne V. Whitson, Mrs. Mabeth H. Paige, and Mrs. Philip S. Post pertain mainly to the screening of these memorial proposals and to the distribution of memorial funds and books. Particularly extensive are the files on the activities of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in the United States and in China, Japan, and Hawaii.
Also included in the Home Files are letters by, to, or about numerous members and relatives of the McCormick family, letters from a few personal friends, material relating to McCormick's patronage of musicians and musical events, and considerable 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, spans the years from 1892 to 1934. Numbering more than 300 letters, the McClure letters constitute the most notable file of correspondence in this series.
In the folder entitled International Harvester Club of Southern California are the recollections of ten men employed by McCormick, Deering, and other agricultural implement manufacturers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who were interviewed in California by Herbert A. Kellar in 1930.
Additions
In 1968, executors of the estate of Gordon McCormick, son of Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr., sent several cartons of material which were added to these Home Files. The more extensive files in these additions are concerned with Anita McCormick Blaine, Harold McCormick, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, and the Young Men's Christian Association.
