Collection Guide
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Inventory of the Floyd Hal Higgins Collection
D-056
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Table of contents
Description
News editor for Caterpillar Tractor Company (1927-1933); freelance agricultural
journalist (1933-1971). Brochures, correspondence, manuscripts, clippings, serials, photographs, and posters
relating to the development of agricultural machinery in the United States, Canada, and Europe, particularly
the history of tractors and combines.
Background
Floyd Halleck Higgins was born on May 15, 1886, in Keokuk, Iowa. After graduating from Iowa State College in
Ames, he moved to Chicago and western Canada to work in a variety of public relations positions including
Director of Public Relations, National Association of Farm Equipment Manufacturers (1922-1926). Higgins
moved to California in 1927 where he became the News Editor for Caterpillar Tractor Company. He immediately
found that farm machinery history “was gathered by each company’s ad men when they needed to get up
something for a ‘special number’ of some publication in which its ads appeared.” In self defense, Higgins
began collecting materials relating to the origins of combines and tractors but his interests expanded to
include all forms of farm mechanization.
Extent
565.4 linear ft.
Restrictions
Copyright is protected by the copyright law, chapter 17, of the U.S. Code. All requests for permission to
publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections, University of
California, Library, Davis as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.