Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America
Archives related to: McCormick, Nettie Fowler, 1835-1923
| title | Nettie Fowler McCormick Correspondence, 1775-1939. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | Papers of Nettie Fowler McCormick, a philanthropist and wife of the inventor, Cyrus Hall McCormick, including correspondence with family and friends, with company officials, and with individuals, organizations, and institutions involved in her many philanthropies. Interfiled are legal documents such as powers of attorney, indentures, and contracts; and annual statements and reports. Correspondence before her marriage consists chiefly of letters relating to her own and her husband’s ancestors and friends; relatives included the Adams, Esselstyn, Fowler, Merick, and Spicer families. She corresponded regularly with her children Harold, Stanley, Virginia, and Anita and with those who cared for Stanley and Virginia after their mental breakdowns. The papers reveal Mrs. McCormick’s role as her husband’s aid and her eldest son’s advisor. The correspondence illustrates her involvement in business as she accompanied her husband on many trips, discussed problems and wrote letters for him, and in his absence received confidential mail relating to his business and their family life. After Cyrus H., Jr., entered the company in 1879 and became president in 1884, frequent communications between son and mother discuss the business, the estate, and investments. References are made to competitors, patents, and strikes of 1885 and 1886; the unsuccessful attempt to form the American Harvester Company in 1888-1890; and problems attending consolidation when the International Harvester Company was established in 1902. Her close contact with these interests, as well as investments and philanthropies, produced correspondence with lawyers, employees, financial agents, and advisors. Mrs. McCormick received informational copies of many letters and reports from the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and the International Harvester Company long after she ceased to be closely involved. In the 1890’s, Mrs. McCormick gave more attention to her interest in philanthropy, an interest that accounts for fully half of her correspondence. The McCormick Theological Seminary, originally her husband’s interest, continued to receive a major share of her attention and funds. Its administrators and faculty, as well as her own pastors at Fourth Presbyterian Church, consulted with her regularly and advised her on other schools and missions. Using the need for Christian service as her personal motivation, she became greatly interested in aiding small schools and academies, particularly those stressing self help for students, manual training, and domestic service. These were chiefly white although some were Afro-American. Letters give evidence of the extent to which she advised them, influenced their curricula, and helped to maintain them. The extent of her personal involvement is illustrated by her many years of correspondence with Harold S. Clemons, whom she assisted through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her interest in the welfare of those in the southern Appalachians led her to aid the Home Industrial School at Asheville under Florence Stephenson ; and to give encouragement to the Laurel schools and to projects in mountain crafts, out of which grew correspondence with Frances L. Goodrich. She helped support Thornwell Orphanage in South Carolina, writing to William Plumer Jacobs; and she kept in touch with James G. K. McClure, Jr., of the Farmers’ Federation in North Carolina. Mrs. McCormick also received numerous requests from civic groups in the Chicago area, and responded to many. Letters concerning the Presbyterian Church, its various boards of education and missions, and its publications comprise much of the correspondence; Bible work and rescue missions were also important to her. In the last thirty years of her life, foreign mission schools claimed much of her attention; and both the personnel and the institutions were her correspondents as well as recipients of her largess. The papers also document her great interest in both the Young Men’s and the Young Women’s Christian Association, locally, nationally, and internationally. Through numerous letters exchanged with John R. Motte she aided the World’s Student Christian Movement and the work of the International Committee of the YMCA. She corresponded also with Fletcher S. Brockman, George M. Day, Sherwood Eddy, Carlisle V. Hibbard, Richard C. Morse, and Luther D. Wishard concerning the YMCA; and with Grace Dodge and Elizabeth Wilson of the YWCA. |
| extent | 145.2 c.f. |
| formats | Correspondence |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | Box list. Also described in Guide to the McCormick Collection, Margaret R. Hafstad, ed., Madison: 1973. An alphabetical index to addressees in Series 1B fills 10 index boxes located at 3M/ 5/J4-5. An alphabetical index to correspondents in Series 2B fills 12 index boxes located at 3M/ 5/J2 and 3M/ 5/J5. An alphabetical index to subjects in Series 3B fills 3 index boxes located at 3M/ 5/I4. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the McCormick Collection. |
| updated | 03/16/2023 10:29:59 |
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| title | Nettie Fowler McCormick Domestic accounts, 1861-1923. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | Domestic accounts of McCormick, a Chicago philanthropist and wife of the industrialist Cyrus Hall McCormick, composed of bills, receipts, and statements for personal and family expenses. There are some subject folders such as "Riven Rock", "European Trip", "Servants’ Pay Roll", which contain the bills and receipts and statements for that subject, though most of the file is in chronological order. Also included are check stubs, 1877-1923. |
| extent | 15.6 c.f. |
| formats | Financial Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | Box list. Also described in Guide to the McCormick Collection, Margaret R. Hafstad, ed., Madison: 1973. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the McCormick Collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:58 |
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| title | Nettie Fowler McCormick Financial file, 1843-1923. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | Financial records of McCormick, a Chicago philanthropist and wife of Cyrus Hall McCormick relating to the upkeep of her estate, her donations, and her service as trustee for her daughter Mary Virginia. Mrs. McCormick’s own habit of keeping lists, her use of cashiers and agents, and the complexity and size of her estate produced a large financial file. Unbound statements, ledgers, and an account book list her donations between 1883 and 1923, including recipient, date, amount, and sometimes notation as to the purpose. Entries frequently overlap, but an alphabetical listing in the largest volume summarizes gifts totaling millions of dollars. The files also include cash books showing expenditures for incidental items, 1884-1890; unbound statements relating to investments and net worth, 1892-1922; and real estate reports and cash statements, 1890-1923, for Mrs. McCormick and the trustees for Mary Virginia. Financial accounts concerning stocks, taxes, and her properties and their upkeep are included, often with pertinent letters from agents such as John A. Chapman, Hiram B. Prentice, and Judson F. Stone. |
| extent | 6.4 c.f. |
| formats | Financial Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | Box list. Also described in Guide to the McCormick Collection, Margaret R. Hafstad, ed., Madison: 1973. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the McCormick Collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:58 |
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| title | Nettie Fowler McCormick Memoranda books, diaries, scrapbooks, 1850-1912. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | Diaries, memoranda, and scrapbooks of McCormick, Chicago philanthropist and wife of the inventor of the reaper, Cyrus Hall McCormick. The diaries cover her three years in female seminaries in New York state, the period from 1856 through 1877, and a trip to Egypt for her son Stanley’s health in 1896. They have frequent gaps in time, but entries are long and thoughtful, revealing much of her character, demonstrating her desire to help others, her concern for her children, and the extent to which she served as counselor to her husband. Entries refer to discussions on plant expansion, her attitude toward mine investments, and her writing of business letters at McCormick’s dictation. References are made to the Civil War, especially during its opening months while the family lived in Washington, and her later work with the New York Ladies’ Southern Relief Society. In addition, there are two notebooks, 1852-1853, kept while a student at Troy Female Academy in New York; six very small books noting shopping lists and personal expenditures, especially while on trips abroad; and two volumes of diaries, 1851-1860, by her cousin, Ermina G. Merick, making frequent reference to Nettie. Of the scrapbooks, one records the success of the McCormick reaper at the London exhibition in 1862; one contains clippings of letters by McCormick published in church papers, 1868-1869, concerning a dispute with Willis Lord involving the McCormick Theological Seminary; and two consist of clippings, programs, and photographs, 1909-1912, regarding admission of Cyrus H. McCormick, Sr., to the Illinois Farmers’ Hall of Fame. |
| extent | 1.6 c.f. |
| formats | Diaries Ephemera Scrapbooks Notebooks |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | Box list. Also described in Guide to the McCormick Collection, Margaret R. Hafstad, ed., Madison: 1973. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the McCormick Collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:58 |
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| title | Nettie Fowler McCormick Biographical Association records, 1802-1949. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | Records of an 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. |
| extent | 52.0 c.f. |
| formats | Correspondence Interviews |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | Register. Also described in Guide to the McCormick Collection, Margaret R. Hafstad, ed., Madison: 1973. Recollections and interviews in this series are listed alphabetically by individual in one-half drawer in the McCormick card index file. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the McCormick Collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:58 |
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| title | Nettie Fowler McCormick Photographs from charitable organizations, 1884-1940. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | Photographs and printed materials sent to Nettie Fowler McCormick in order to solicit charitable funds or to provide evidence of charitable works to which she contributed. Included are images of missionaries, schools, churches, and medical facilities. Both foreign and domestic institutions are depicted. |
| extent | 6.6 c.f. |
| formats | Ephemera |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | This collection is unprocessed. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the McCormick Collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:58 |
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| title | Stanley McCormick School account books, 1909-1918. | repository | Wisconsin Historical Society |
| description | One cash account book and five ledger books kept by school personnel for the Stanley McCormick School in Burnsville, North Carolina. The cash account book records cash paid out for work done on the school, 1909-1910. The ledgers show payments for work done on the school and also list each student by name and record payments for tuition, room, and board, and credits for part-time work by the students. |
| extent | 0.8 c.f. |
| formats | Financial Records |
| access | Contact repository for restrictions and policies. |
| record source | http://arcat.library.wisc.edu/ |
| finding aid | Box list. Also described in Guide to the McCormick Collection, Margaret R. Hafstad, ed., Madison: 1973. Each ledger is indexed by name of student. |
| acquisition information | Forms part of the McCormick Collection. |
| updated | 11/12/2014 11:29:58 |
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