Producing a Past: Cyrus Mccormick's Reaper from Heritage to History
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Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 2014 Producing a Past: Cyrus Mccormick's Reaper from Heritage to History Daniel Peter Ott Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Ott, Daniel Peter, "Producing a Past: Cyrus Mccormick's Reaper from Heritage to History" (2014). Dissertations. 1486. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1486 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 2014 Daniel Peter Ott LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO PRODUCING A PAST: CYRUS MCCORMICK’S REAPER FROM HERITAGE TO HISTORY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY JOINT PROGRAM IN AMERICAN HISTORY / PUBLIC HISTORY BY DANIEL PETER OTT CHICAGO, ILLINOIS MAY 2015 Copyright by Daniel Ott, 2015 All rights reserved. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is the result of four years of work as a graduate student at Loyola University Chicago, but is the scholarly culmination of my love of history which began more than a decade before I moved to Chicago. At no point was I ever alone on this journey, always inspired and supported by a large cast of teachers, professors, colleagues, co-workers, friends and family. I am indebted to them all for making this dissertation possible, and for supporting my personal and scholarly growth. I would like to thank everyone in the Loyola University Chicago History department. The department and the Graduate School not only provided the funding to make my academic journey in graduate school possible, but consistently challenged and supported me through the process. In particular my advisor and dissertation director, Ted Karamanski, was critical to my success at Loyola. Dr. Karamanski offered me timely advice, insight, and encouragement as I navigated course work, exams, and my dissertation. Professors Patricia Mooney-Melvin and Elizabeth Fraterrigo were also invaluable to my graduate career, providing constructive criticism and reassurance as they challenged me in my course work and helped me to refine my dissertation. While he was not on my committee, I would also like to thank Tim Gilfoyle for his help in focusing early iterations of two of my chapters during his research seminars. Beyond the faculty, I would like to thank my numerous colleagues. Erin Feichtinger and Amelia Serafine entered Loyola’s history doctoral program with me in iii the fall of 2010. Through the joys and pains of scholarly life we became very close, often entering into rigorous and sometimes ridiculous debates, engaging with each other’s very different scholarship and enjoying friendly companionship beyond the confines of academia. I especially appreciate the number of times Amelia and Erin graciously read and re-read my chapters, continually offering editorial corrections, fresh insight and tough criticism. I would also like to thank my numerous colleagues who engaged with my work and enjoyed coursework with me, including: Rachel Boyle, Steve Catania, Devin Hunter, Will Ippen, Nate Jeremie-Brink, Pete Kotowski, Katie Macica, Amy Oberlin, Chris Ramsey, Matt Sawicki and Hope Shannon. Any historical research project requires the support of many librarians, archivists, and pages. The archival staff at the Wisconsin Historical Society was crucial to this project’s success. At Madison, the head of the McCormick-International Harvester Company Collection, Lee Grady, was instrumental in pointing me towards the history- making agenda of the McCormicks and their corporation as well as helping me to approach the massive collection. Staff at Loyola’s own Cudahy Library, as well the Newberry Library and the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis special collections, were also incredibly helpful in facilitating my research. I would also like to acknowledge a whole army of people who have supported me in my historical career outside of graduate school. Tim Hoogland, my mentor at the Minnesota Historical Society and Bob Ferguson, my eighth-grade history teacher, played crucial roles in fostering my historical interests. Along with them, I would like to thank Steve Gross, Paula O’loughlin, Marynel Ryan Van Zee, Haven Hawley, Donna Gabbacia, Andy Urban, Anne Bercher, Bob Quist, John Hanson, Julie Galonska, Jean Schaeppi- iv Anderson, Branda Thwaits, and Michael Boucher, among many others. I would also like to thank former staffers with National History Day in Minnesota who I worked with as a student and later as a professional, including: Jessica, Mike, Mollie, James, Natalie, Theresa, Matt, Rachel, Katie, Naomi, and Chris. I would like to acknowledge the importance of my dear friend and former-co-worker at History Day, Laura Zeccardi, who passed away in 2013. Like myself, Laura understood the power of history to transform public education. She also encouraged me to get my doctorate when I wasn’t sure if I was up for the challenge. I owe many thanks to my friends and family for their loving support and encouragement throughout my life. My mom and dad, Lynda and Peter Ott, provided me with an appreciation for education and always nurtured my academic and personal interests. I would also like to thank my brother, Nate and future sister-in-law, Naira. My extended family of Otts and Bonsells have also been great sources of encouragement, especially Grandma and Grandpa Ott, Tom and Lucy, as well as Grandma Audrey Bonsell, who has passed. My in-laws, Jim and Cheri Bielke, as well as their entire clan have always been welcoming and supportive of me as part of their family. I would also like to thank my close-friends Jakob Erickson, Ben Schurhamer, Stephen Cox, Justin Kruse, Liam Ford, Rhonda Rush, Matt Conklin, and the recently passed George Lewis for being pleasant distractions from scholarly work. Finally, I would like to thank my dear wife and life-partner, Cassie Ott. She has been through it all with me, enduring four years of late nights, existential crises, inconsistent academic schedules, and far too much information about the McCormicks. She has been my biggest cheerleader and motivating force, knowing just when to v encourage me to take a break in order to preserve my sanity and how to get me outside of myself to enjoy doing anything other than reading, writing or grading. I could not have done it without her love and support, and this dissertation is dedicated to her. vi To Cassie When the historian of the future comes to speak of the great Americans…who have succeeded the best in lightening the burdens of mankind, by the side of Franklin, and Fulton and Joseph Henry and Morse, they will not forget to mention Cyrus H. McCormick. Where the golden wheat rustles in the breeze, the panting toilers under the hot sun will hail him as their benefactor. —S.C.P. Miller, In Memoriam: Cyrus Hall McCormick TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES x ABSTRACT xi INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE: EVERY SALESMAN, A HISTORIAN 24 CHAPTER TWO: “WITH SUCH BENEFITS TO MANKIND”: PRODUCING INVENTION FOR PRODUCER POPULISTS 69 CHAPTER THREE: “THE REAPER IS TO THE NORTH…”: HISTORICAL LABORERS AND THE MANIPULATION OF THE PAST 118 CHAPTER FOUR: “EVERY TALL BUILDING IS A MONUMENT TO BREAD” 165 CHAPTER FIVE: “HISTORICAL ACCURACY” KELLAR, 1915-1932 214 BIBLIOGRAPHY 285 VITA 298 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Residence of David Harris 55 Figure 2. Exterior of the 1886 MHMC Trade Card 64 Figure 3. Interior of the 1886 MHMC Trade Card 64 Figure 4. “Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way” With McCormick in the Van 65 Figure 5. Battle of Gettysburg 66 Figure 6. The MHMC Exhibit at the 1893 Columbian Exposition 74 Figure 7. 1893 MHMC Catalog Cover 77 Figure 8. 1890 MHMC Catalog Cover 94 Figure 9. 1890 MHMC Catalog Back Cover 94 Figure 10. 1894 MHMC Catalog Cover 99 Figure 11. “The Little Boy and the Big Boys” 171 Figure 12. “The Harvester Trust” 172 Figure 13. “Prospy” 178 Figure 14. “The Reaper Takes Form” 268 x ABSTRACT “Producing a Past” explores how the false “fact” of Cyrus McCormick’s 1831 invention of the reaper came to be incorporated into the American historical cannon. From 1884 to 1932, the McCormick Harvester family and their various affiliated businesses created a useable past about their departed patriarch, Cyrus McCormick, and his role in producing civilization through advertising and the emerging historical profession. The McCormick narrative of the past which was peddled in advertising and supported in scholarship justified the family’s elite position in American society and its monopolistic control of the harvester industry in the face of political and popular antagonism. As a parallel story to the McCormick’s hegemonic use of history, this dissertation also focuses on the professionalizing historical discipline during the Progressive Era. These early historians were anxious to demonstrate their concrete value in the corporate economy as “objective” guardians of the past. While ethics might have prevented them from being historians for hire, their own positions as middle-class workers pre-disposed them to be receptive to both the McCormick’s financial influence and their historical messages. vii INTRODUCTION The reaper- a horse-drawn machine that greatly increased the amount of wheat a farmer could harvest, was invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1831. Eric Foner 1 The automatic reaper, the invention of Cyrus H. McCormick, took the place of sickle, cradle and hand labor…. The reaper enabled a crew of six or seven men to harvest in a day as much wheat as fifteen men could harvest using the older methods.