The purpose of the Institute is to create a fuller understanding among farmers of the nature and purpose of farmer cooperatives. Joseph Knapp attended the University of Illinois, then became a fellow of the Food Research Institute of Stanford University in 1924, receiving his Ph.D. there in 1929. In 1934 he became the principal agricultural economist for the Farm Credit Administration. From 1953 to 1966 he was the administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Farmer Cooperative Service. Knapp published a two-volume history of the cooperative movement in the United States.
Collection includes speeches, publications, and a bibliography.
Elmer L. Kreger began his career in 1906 unloading grain and coal cars in Jefferson, Iowa. In 1908, he became manager of the Farmers Elevator Company in Grimes, Iowa. From 1912 to 1926 he managed an elevator at Ralston, Iowa. Kreger started the Farmers Elevator Service Company in 1926, with the idea that if elevator companies would cooperate in purchasing farm supplies in large units, substantial savings could be gained for their customers. Eventually the cooperative handled a full line of farm supplies, including livestock feed, fertilizer, and petroleum.