ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Chicago farm machinery company represented itself in and through World's Fairs in order to reveal the World's Fair as a transnational space, the McCormick name as a transnational brand, and 'American harvesting machines' as a transnational phenomenon. It discusses the advertising rhetoric used in McCormick catalogs to establish the way that successes at fairs were used to promote the machines. The chapter explains 'internationalization', 'globalization', and 'integration' in a challenging context. These three terms have emerged out of current concern over the growing roles of transnational corporations in the world economy and the transnational projects of nation states and transnational government. So the representation of McCormick's reaper through World's Fairs, 1851-1902, provides a difficult context for the use of these terms. Transnational machines and identities were achieved very early in this industry. They were constructed within an existing and developing Victorian-era international scene that facilitated transnational transfers of innovation, production, and commodities.
