The International Harvester (IH) Company was an agricultural company formed in 1902 from a merger among the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, the Deering Harvester Company, and three smaller firms. The Milwaukee Harvester Company was one of the three smaller companies.

Milwaukee Harvester Catalog, 1894

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Milwaukee Harvester Catalog. View the original source document: WHI 11688

Crowd outside International Harvester's Milwaukee Works, 1905

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Crowd outside International Harvester's Milwaukee Works. View the original source document: WHI 7560

The Milwaukee Harvester factory was originally constructed by Dennett Harvesting Machine Company in 1880, and in 1884, changed its name to the Milwaukee Harvester Company. Original product lines included mowers, harvesters, and binders. Gasoline engines were added by the IH after the merger in 1904. In August of 1905, the factory began to manufacture cream separators, one of its most famous products.

Primrose Cream Separators, 1917

Primrose Cream Separators. View the original source document: WHI 50173

Tractor lines were added in 1908, with the first models being 20-HP and 25-HP friction drive tractors. The Milwaukee factory saw peak employment of 8200 people during World War II.

During the war, IH employees at Milwaukee manufactured 75-millimeter shells and equipped 155-millimeter gun carriages with pneumatic tires and improved springs.

Tractors at Milwaukee Works, 1910

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tractors at Milwaukee Works.  View the original source document: WHI 64669

Men Working on Gun Carriage at Milwaukee Works, 1941

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Men Working on Gun Carriage at Milwaukee Works.  View the original source document: WHI 59459

The Milwaukee factory was closed in 1971. Operations were moved to the IH foundry in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and more modern facilities in Louisville, Kentucky. At the time the factory made rough castings for diesel engines and parts for farm and crawler tractors.

The Wisconsin Historical Society holds several items regarding the Milwaukee works, including operator manuals and parts catalog for many (but not all) equipment lines. The Society also has some company records of early labor unrest formed by the merger of the five companies. These records describe the IH company’s view of worker’s efforts to organize. The plant magazine the Milwaukee Works Reporter, later the Milwaukee Reporter, also is available from 1939 to 1949. These records are not available online. Patrons should email [email protected] with any questions or requests for copies. Learn more about

Some material is available online. This includes additional photos of the Milwaukee works, products, and workers. These photos can be viewed and purchased from Wisconsin Historical Images.

[link to Visual Materials]

The factory and many products also are documented in the IH Company Magazine The Harvester World. This magazine can be searched and viewed at the McCormick-International Harvester Collection page. [link to category page]