Lee Fosburgh emphasized a quote attributed to Caterpillar co-founder C.L. Best as the essence of a ceremony Thursday morning at the company’s visitors’ center in downtown Peoria.
“What he said was, ‘While we constantly look towards the future to the innovations of tomorrow, an occasional reflective pause to pay tribute to the work of the past regenerates our determination to succeed in the task yet undone,’” said Fosburgh, the company’s manager of the corporate archives.
More than 300 people were on hand at the ribbon-cutting for the new interactive Heritage Gallery exhibit as Caterpillar kicked off its celebration of its 100th year in business.
“It’s really about our people, and our people have been innovating for 100 years. That ends up in customer success, and that’s what it’s all about,” said Henry Vicary, CAT’s director of guest and community relations. “There’s so many memories unlocked here, so many people can come here now and through our technology, interactive screens, connect with something that’s important to them.”
Vicary said the exhibit serves as a tour through CAT’s history, from the 1920s through today.
“You’re going to be able to trace Caterpillar all the way back to the Holt [Manufacturing] and Best [Tractor] companies when they merged in 1925 all the way through today. And what’s neat about this exhibit now it’s changeable, because we can grow as our history grows right with it,” he said.
Fosburgh said his team spent more than a year assembling the state-of-the-art exhibit, which includes “over 20 three-dimensional artifacts” and many more images and documents from the company archives in Mossville.
“There’s over 200 digital assets that kind of fall under five themes: One is people, CAT milestones, also the great projects that our machines have worked on, to employee innovation,” said Fosburgh. “And my favorite one is what we’re calling ‘From the Vault,’ which are kind of sub-collections from our archives that show anything from images from companies that we’ve acquired and their history, to things like building the Panama Canal.”
John Morris, president and CEO of the neighboring Peoria Riverfront Museum, praised the new CAT exhibit as another draw to the area.
“This is the story of one of the greatest manufacturers in the history of the world, and no matter where their headquarters is located, they are always going to have Peoria as their hometown,” said Morris. “So to have this story told here at the Caterpillar Visitors’ Center and juxtapose with the next door neighbors of the Riverfront Museum, it’s just really an honor.
“This company has been extraordinarily important for not only the jobs, but the culture of invention here, the amount of intellectual property, the breakthroughs that are literally helping the world build its infrastructure that helps lift up the global population. It’s really a remarkable story.”
CAT retirees Roger Birky and Rosemary McCullough, who both started working as hosts when the visitors’ center opened in 2012, had the honor of cutting the ribbon to open the exhibit.
Vicary said the visitors’ center attracted more than 46,000 visitors from all 50 states in 2024, and they’re expecting to top that this year with centennial-themed events planned for each month.
“Peoria is an important place to us, and we really, really feel like this is an important part of the fabric and the DNA of Caterpillar,” said Vicary, whose sentiments Fosburgh echoed.
“What I think this says to Peoria is, a lot of the people who built this [company] – right? – they’re documented in this exhibit,” said Fosburgh. “I think people will be very excited to see the many things, like maybe the equipment they worked on building, to some of the projects they were part of.
“We always say that artifacts tell great stories, and great stories inspire. And I think that’s what everyone’s experience will be.”
