Whirlwind Hill Farm papers

Twice between 1940 and 1960, James Marshall Osborn (JMO) built herds of purebred Holstein dairy cattle to recognized excellence at Whirlwind Hill Farm in Wallingford, Connecticut. The farm was known throughout the world for its breeding of pedigreed bulls, by which, through the process of artificial insemination, tens of thousands of dairy cattle were sired worldwide.

As a result of the diverse background Professor Osborn brought to the dairy business, this collection represents a source material for scholars pursuing more than just a study of the cattle trade. Decisions made on the farm, based upon certain government regulations and taxing policies, are recorded within for the economist and the land-use student. As a literary scholar and writer himself, Mr. Osborn made frequent observations upon the nature of scholarship in a pastoral setting. His bibliographical record of The Holstein Handbook sheds light not only on his own writing for the trade, but on the whole scope of the dairy market of that era as well. Finally, Mr. Osborn has saved for us all of his advertising materials which produced the success of the farm over the period of 20 years. They prove useful not only as a marketing record, but as the best resource for a study of the blood lines of his cattle.

The papers are divided into six categories, beginning with a compilation of the available accounts of the farm and its progress from contemporary journals, newspaper articles, diaries and the like. It is suggested to the researcher that this is the first place to start for the reason that quick familiarity with important names and dates can be attained.

This secondary source material is backed up with box 2, a compilation of articles and pamphlets on the status of dairy farming at the time. Once acquainted with the political, social and temporal environment of the collection, the researcher finds the original source material in boxes 3-17 more meaningful.

Osborn saved all of his correspondence, and much of it ran through more than the life of the farm with certain individuals. The researcher will find that the correspondence supplements the material endeavors recorded in the source material of boxes 8-17. Osborn was constantly called to participate in various cattlemen's associations and organizations. While the researcher can find the product of his involvement in box 8, it is the correspondence that indicates the nature of his intent, and often portrays the Homeric difficulties Osborn faced in his dual role as a farmer and a world class scholar of English literature. For a man who professed to have so little time, however, Osborn did manage to record a good deal of the difficulty through his stenographer.

From the early stages of the farm development on, Osborn advertised with a budget disproportionate to his size. That this strategy paid off is seen by the fact that the 1959 dispersal sale was the largest ever, with journalists calling it the cattle event of the year. Regular readers of dairy magazines had been kept apprised throughout of the growth of the herd into high-producing Holsteins and bulls sought the world over for their sire-power. And it was not long before the advertising of other dairymen began to piggyback upon the goodwill of the name of the Whirlwind Hill Farm. Cattlemen who had bought blood line cattle from Osborn testified in print that "Our Whirlhills Pay the Bills."

As both evidence of an effective public relations strategy, and as direct source material in the geneological history of the Whirlwind Hill Herds, advertising records are filed in box 9. It is accompanied by the original photographs of the cattle and the farm that were used in advertisments, catalogues, and circulars, found in boxes 9-11.

Boxes 12-17 contain the financial records of the farm, random proprietary correspondence, and miscallaneous documents of the farm's growth.