Model of William N. Whiteley's reaper, 1877
Whiteley, of Springfield, Ohio, was an inventor and entrepreneur whose Champion Binder Company, founded in 1852, was one of the largest producers of farm machinery in the late nineteenth century. In 1877 Whiteley received a patent for an "Improvement in Harvesters," represented by this unusually attractive model that he submitted with his application. Whiteley's reaper is one of several thousand patent models the Smithsonian acquired from the Patent Office in 1926.
See also:
Agricultural Artifacts, Patent Models
