International Minerals and Chemical Corporation Collection

Bulk Dates
1960s
Abstract
This collection of films contains prints and elements of industrial films made by the International Minerals & Chemical Corporation (IMC Global). Formerly headquartered in Lake Forest, Illinois, International Minerals & Chemical Corp was a mining and production company that was once among the world's leading producers of phosphate and fertilizer. Many of the 35mm elements in the collection were shot on 2-perf Techniscope.
view More collection Details

Collection Items

Browse All Objects
982 EMPIRE PHOTOSOUND JOB 6076 TECHNISCOPE EK NEG
Film
982 EMPIRE PHOTOSOUND JOB 6076 TECHNISCOPE EK NEG
April 15 1966
To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
Collection Identifier
C.2015-05
Extent of Collection
13 rolls of 16mm film totaling 6,800 feet, 184 rolls of 35mm film totaling 35,500 feet
Language Of Materials
English
Subject
Industry
Plants
Ecology
Agriculture
Creators
International Minerals and Chemical Corporation (was created by)
The International Minerals & Chemical Corporation was incorporated in June 1909 as International Agricultural Corporation. It initially owned a number of fertilizer manufacturing plants in Tennessee, all of the capital stock of the Kaliwerke Sollstedt Gewerkschaft Potash Mines in Germany, large deposits of phosphate rock in Tennessee, and all of the capital stock in the Prairie Pebble Phosphate Company in Florida. It added manufacturing plants in Alabama, Georgia, Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee within the first few years. By the mid-1920s International Agricultural was the largest owner and seller of phosphate rock, which is used in the manufacture of fertilizer, in the United States.

In December 1941 the company name was changed to International Minerals & Chemical Corporation and moved its headquarters from Atlanta to Chicago. In April 1942 the company merged with United Potash & Chemical Corporation, a subsidiary engaged in the mining and refining of potash salt as well as the production of potassium chloride, potassium sulphate (both fertilizer ingredients), and magnesium chloride, the base for making magnesium metal.

By the beginning of the 1960s, when its main offices were in Skokie, the company grossed about $130 million in annual sales and employed over 5,000 people around the country but only a few in the Chicago area. International Minerals began acquiring other companies in the mid-1960s. By the end of the 1990s, the company was called IMC Global; it had over $2 billion in annual revenues and employed about 250 people at its corporate headquarters in suburban Northbrook. In the early 2000s, the company's headquarters moved to nearby Lake Forest. In 2004, IMC Global merged with Cargill, Inc.'s crop nutrition division to form The Mosaic Company, a crop nutrition company.