Planes, Trains and... Tractors?
“A tractor, whether light or heavy in actuality, should convey an impression of solidity and strength.”
-Raymond Loewy
From L to R: JFK-era Air Force One, a GG-1 Electric Locomotive, International Harvester Farmall H
If you haven’t seen the classic John Hughes film Planes, Trains and Automobiles, please stop reading this right now and watch it. I’ll wait. Finished? Great movie, right? It’ s one of my all-time favorites and a must-see every holiday season. Now, forget about it because that movie has absolutely nothing to do with this blog post.
So what do planes, trains, and tractors all have in common? Well, if you consider three specific examples - Air Force One, the GG-1 Locomotive and the International Harvester Letter Series Farmall tractor - there is one common thread that runs through them: famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy.
Growing up on a farm I was exposed to a great deal of farm equipment: tractors, combines, diggers, plows, etc. As a result I learned to drive a tractor long before driving a car. Being surrounded by these machines helped foster my interest in engineering but it would take many years before I looked at them from a different angle. In addition to the obvious technical and engineering innovations that made these mechanized workhorses possible was a more subjective layer - that of beauty, design and usability.
1939 Farmall Ad, source: Wisconsin Historical Society
Having studied engineering and physics I wasn’t exposed to the world of industrial design until I came to Target. There, a newfound appreciation for combining function with form language and usability grew. And so when I was researching the history of some of my Dad’s tractors I was struck by how pivotal a role Loewy’s industrial design played in creating a series of tractors that would define farming for generations.
“One can hardly open a beer or a soft drink, fix breakfast, board a plane, buy gas, mail a letter or shop for an appliance without encountering a Loewy creation.”
-New York Times
If you’re not familiar with Raymond Loewy, a cursory Google search will reveal an amazing litany of products and brands that bear his fingerprints. Loewy originated the concept of streamlining, which he described as “beauty through function and simplification.” According to his official biography, “Loewy spent over 50 years streamlining everything from postage stamps to spacecrafts. His more famous creations include the Lucky Strike cigarette package, the GG1 and S1 locomotives, the slenderized Coca-Cola bottle, the John F. Kennedy memorial postage stamp, the interior of Saturn I, Saturn V, and Skylab, the Greyhound bus and logo, the Shell International logo, the Exxon logo, the U.S. Postal Service emblem, a line of Frigidaire refrigerators, ranges, and freezers, and the Studebaker Avanti, Champion and Starliner.”
Many search results, however, don’t mention arguably his most influential design: the International Harvester Farmall Letter Series tractor.
A rainbow of tractor brands were once common.
For many years farmers could be categorized by the color of their machinery. Today John Deere green is the dominant color that dots many farms during spring planting and fall harvest. While John Deere is currently the largest and most well-known farm equipment brand, it wasn’t that long ago that a veritable rainbow of brands could be found at implement dealers in every small town in rural America.
The ungainly Farmall F-14, 1938.
Prior to 1939, most tractors looked like cantankerous, ungainly beasts of iron welded together with exposed engines and steering linkages. The Farmall “Regular”, the immediate predecessor to Loewy’s letter series, however, was notable in that it popularized what would become the dominant form factor for many years: a longitudinally front-mounted engine, tricycle wheels, rear power-take off and high clearance rear wheels. Despite its relative success, the tractor had an appearance that by today’s standards feels unfinished and incomplete.
In 1939 International Harvester launched the Farmall A, B, H and M tractors and in doing so, kicked off the “Golden Age” of farming, bringing affordability, reliability and power to farmers across the country, allowing them to unleash the full potential of their land. No longer were farmers dependent on literal horse power. Farmers could operate more acres more efficiently as the farming economy moved from one of mostly subsistence to generating surpluses of grain that could be sold far and wide. Between 1939 and 1954 over 1 million Farmall letter series tractors would be made. 400,000 Farmall H’s alone were produced.
A 1953 Farmall Super H, restored and owned by Daryl Kuehn, photo by Tom Kuehn
Interestingly, it wasn’t a revolutionary set of technical innovations that differentiated these new models from the previous generation, but rather Raymond Loewy’s design influence that gave birth to what became an icon of American farming: a beautiful gleaming red tractor that seamlessly married form and function. Loewy’s streamlining of the tractor with a rounded cowl that concealed the radiator, engine and fuel tank gave the new tractor a modern appearance that would influence the International Harvester brand and its competitors for decades.
Raymond Loewy’s updated IH logo.
In addition to his work on the Farmall, Loewy was also responsible for re-branding International Harvester, creating its now-famous IH logo. Unbeknownst to many, the lower case i superimposed over a larger black H also represents a driver sitting on a tractor, with the dot of the i representing the driver’s head and the sides of the H representing the wheels.
For the rest of the 20th century many of the once-dominant implement brands would slowly disappear as a result of consolidation, mergers and for some, bankruptcy. Today, 80 years after his Farmall was introduced, Raymond Loewy’s mark on farming can still be seen on many farms across the country where many of the venerable tractors are still in use.