References

Nichols-Shepard produced advertising materials and other documents over the years. These are recorded here, along with links to online copies where possible. Books on steam engines as well as Nichols-Shepard, the company, have also been written.

Please see notes at the end of this page for reference download information.

Catalogs

Dating the year of a catalog is difficult for the later years. Early catalogs sometimes had a date included in the cover illustration, but also would refer to “XX Years Of Continuous and Successful Business…” or “XX Years’ Experience…” on the first page. The combination of both proves the base year is indeed 1848, so “Fifty-One Years Of…” would indicate an 1899 catalog. By 1916 this annotation was no longer included, so those catalogs depend on writing by an owner or other means to place a year on the catalog.

Sales, Service, and Other Publications

Advertising

Factory

Company Records

  • 1887-1893 Engine Memorandum Ledger Books
    • These books are a comprehensive log, by serial number, of each engine built by Nichols-Shepard from serial number 2377 (built Nov 1, 1886) to engine number 4691 (built Aug 31, 1893).
  • 1886-12 to 1913-01 Board of Director Meeting Minutes
    • The 1886-1913 minutes is mostly hand-written and includes only the annual meeting each year, usually with shareholder names with number of shares, as well as a balance sheet.
    • There are some interesting typewritten extras, including a vehemently-opposed response to the new U.S. federal corporate income tax passed in 1909. N&S reluctantly returns the forms along with their opinion on the matter.
  • 1915-01 to 1915-12 Board of Director Meeting Minutes
  • 1923-01 to 1923-06 Board of Director Meeting Minutes
  • 1923-07 to 1923-12 Board of Director Meeting Minutes
  • 1924-01 to 1924-06 Board of Director Meeting Minutes
  • 1924-07 to 1924-12 Board of Director Meeting Minutes
    • The minutes from 1915, 1923-24 are bi-weekly, typewritten, and include a treasurer’s report and often a production report of running totals for the model year. Production data includes gas tractors and separators in addition to steam engines.

Books

  • Norbeck, Jack. Encyclopedia of American Steam Traction Engines. United States, Crestline Pub., 1976.
  • Clymer, Floyd. Floyd Clymer’s Album of Historical Steam Traction Engines and Threshing Equipment: American and foreign engines from 1855 to 1929. United States, F. Clymer, 1949.
  • Spalding, John F., and Rhode, Robert T.. The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia. United States, Book Factory, 2011.

Reference Download Notes

Please note that even though most Nichols-Shepard information should be well out of U.S. Copyright, there are details that scans can be copyright and such. Original scans offered here are under the creative commons license and are therefore downloaded directly. If these scans are to be monetized, consider a bit of give back to help support the overheads of this site. At the very least, stamp a disclaimer on printed copies so they do not appear like counterfeit original documents.

Terry Jones steamcatalogs.com

Terry Jones has made printed reproduction documents available for many years. These reproductions are all properly labeled with a copyright and clearly do not appear as counterfeit collector material. Downloads of those documents are not to be made available. Go to steamcatalogs.com and purchase the reprints from Terry.

Vintage Machinery

References to Vintage Machinery (vintagemachinery.org) are given as direct links, but these links can break. It should be straightforward to navigate to Nichols & Shepard Co. via the Manufacturers Index to find specific publication reprints if this occurs. It is the intention to submit original scans from here to vintagemachinery.org as it is a fine website.

Hathitrust

References to Hathitrust (hathitrust.org) are more difficult. Deep links are provided above, but they are likely to break over time. The suggestion is to follow these steps to reach a treasure trove of steam engine literature.

Hathitrust agricultural catalogs

  • On the hathitrust.org main page, click the “Advanced Catalog Search” which should take you here https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Search/Advanced
  • A Search By Field form will appear
  • In the first field enter “agricultural machinery”, leaving out the quotes. Leave the pulldown box as “All Fields”
  • In the second field enter “nichols shepard”, leaving out the quotes. Spin the pulldown box to “All Fields”
  • Make sure these two fields are filled in and both say “All Fields” and hit the Advanced Search button
  • This search will get a single hit for commercial catalogs. Hit the Catalog Record link.
  • A technical list is produced, but scroll down and see the catalogs are there. Many brands are present, but Nichols & Shepard should be there for the catalog and publications shown above.

Hathitrust Magazines

  • On the hathitrust.org main page, select the Catalog radio button under the search box
  • Leave the spinner button as All Fields and type the name of the magazine in the search field
  • Do the search and you should get a fairly short list of hits