Tractors On Parade (And Trucks Too)

On Friday during the lunch hour, folks down on Library Mall were treated to the spectacle of some vintage International Harvester trucks and tractors.





They had been assembled from far and wide for the 2009 Red Power Round Up which was held at the Alliant Energy Center. RPRU is a gathering of International Harvester collectors who show off their refurbished tractors, trucks, and, presumably, whatever else has an IH logo on it.

Here are some trucks from the 1940s:





And check out this baby:



Above is a 1948 Model KB-2 Woody station wagon. All of the woodwork is original. The interior was gorgeous.







And here are a couple of the many tractors.





This last one is a 1941 Farmall MD. A couple owned it and the wife told me that it was found in a field up north. The "D" in the model name refers to the fact that it has a diesel instead of a gas engine.

Before long, the collectors headed back.





The reason why the IH folks put their vehicles on display in Library Mall was that the Wisconsin Historical Society is home to the archives of Cyrus McCormick and International Harvester.

McCormick patented a reaper in 1834 and went into the farm implement business. Thirteen years later he left Virginia for Chicago where he founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company which became the largest such company in the country by 1858. It merged with the Deering Harvester Company in 1902 and the conglomerate was christened International Harvester.

In addition to this year being the 200th anniversary of the births of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, it is also the bicentennial of McCormick's birth. The WHS archives on State Street has relevant some items on display in its halls. When you're done looking at those, you can look up how IH determined what color their tractors should be in 1950 and amaze your friends with your arcane knowledge.

Addendum: Speaking of arcane knowledge, I was wondering how McCormick's archives ended up at the WHS instead of Chicago so I asked. Here's what archivist Pete Shrake told me:

In 1919, the family-supported McCormick Historical Association, which included the original core of the archival collection, had outgrown its quarters in the McCormick mansion at 675 Rush Street in Chicago. It was then moved to the large stone carriage house at the rear of the property, where extensive remodeling provided a library, museum, offices, and facilities for research. When the land and buildings were sold in an estate settlement in 1949, the holdings were placed in storage until 1951, at which time Anita McCormick Blaine, after having had her representatives investigate as many as thirty repositories, presented the complete collection to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Here, at this Midwestern location, Mrs. Blaine concluded that the outstanding American history library of the Society, and the reputation of the University of Wisconsin as a liberal arts and agricultural institution, would assure maximum use of the Collection by researchers.

The McCormick Collection of 1951 was composed of the papers of Cyrus Hall McCormick; domestic and foreign correspondence and business papers of the various McCormick companies in Chicago prior to 1902; and a number of collateral collections relating to agriculture and particularly to McCormick’s native state of Virginia, including the papers of James D. Davidson and James McDowell of Rockbridge County, Virginia. However, since the arrival of the original Collection at the Society, it has been augmented greatly by the addition of other papers, many of them paralleling the inventor's manuscripts but most of them widening the fields of interest and sources for research. The papers of Nettie Fowler McCormick, the inventor's widow, were presented to the Society in 1953 and 1956 by the Nettie Fowler McCormick Biographical Association, along with the papers of her daughter, Mary Virginia McCormick. Shortly thereafter correspondence and reports relating to her son, Stanley R. McCormick, were received; and in 1958 the papers of another son, Harold F. McCormick, were presented by Harold's son, Fowler McCormick. In 1958 also, most of the papers of Anita McCormick Blaine were presented by Mrs. Blaine's granddaughter, Anne (Nancy) Blaine Harrison, and were completed with additions sent by Mrs. Harrison in 1971. In 1960, the papers of Cyrus H. McCormick, Jr., including much material on the McCormick companies and the International Harvester Company, were given by his son, Gordon; and additions were received from Gordon McCormick's estate in 1968.

In 1959 the International Harvester Company shipped several truckloads of farm implements and models to Stonefield, the Society's farm and craft museum at Cassville; and when the old McCormick Works at Chicago was closed, nineteen tons of financial ledgers were sent to the Society, all relating to the McCormick companies, other parent companies of the International Harvester Company, and International Harvester itself. Following the death in 1955 of the coordinator of the McCormick Collection, Herbert A. Kellar, his papers were added, including those of Everett E. Edwards and Solon Robinson, used by Kellar in his own research. Other, smaller groups of papers have been received at various times since 1951.