Caterpillar Tractor Company

The Caterpillar Tractor Company was formed in 1925 by the merger of the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, California, and Peoria, Illinois, and the C.L. Best Tractor Company of San Leandro, California. In the years before World War I, Benjamin Holt invented the "caterpillar tractor," which moved on heavy, belted-metal tracks rather than wheels. The tracks prevented the vehicle from sinking in the mud. The Caterpillar Tractor Company mounted extensive marketing campaigns during the late 1920s and early 1930s. The company advertised products for a wide variety of industries, including farming, lumbering, quarrying, road building, and engineering.

The Caterpillar Tractor Company was formed in 1925 when the Holt Manufacturing Company of Stockton, California, and Peoria, Illinois, merged with the C.L. Best Tractor Company of San Leandro, California . In the years before World War I, Benjamin Holt invented the “caterpillar tractor,” which moved on heavy, belted-metal tracks rather than wheels. The tracks prevented the vehicle from sinking in the mud. Both the Holt and C. L. Best companies manufactured track-laying tractors for construction and earth moving, and Holt also made combined harvesters for farming use. The company grew steadily from 1925 to 1930. In 1928, Caterpillar Tractor Company added road-building equipment to its product line when it merged with the Russell Grade Manufacturing Company of Minneapolis. The Caterpillar Tractor Company’s headquarters were located in Peoria, Illinois.

Caterpillar Tractor Company mounted extensive marketing campaigns during the period documented by these photographs . The company advertised products for a wide variety of industries, including farming, lumbering, quarrying, road building, and engineering. Caterpillar commissioned photographs of its equipment at work for use in a variety of advertisements and other publications. Caterpillar Tractor Company donated these promotional photographs to Harvard Business School in 1932 for use in the classroom and for display in Baker Library .