Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper

Credit: Library of Congress
Media type: illustration
Museum Number: LC-USZ62-44940
Annotation: McCormick who was from Virginia was one of two people to create a reaping machine. The invention of the reaper allowed for farmers to do less back breaking work. Although McCormick was not the first to invent the reaper, he was the one to invent and improve the machine. He moved to Chicago where he opened a reaper manufacturing company and founded the International Harvester Company. This invention took farming from its original hands on hard work to a mechanical operation.
Year: 1831