The Howard Castner Pierce Papers consist of black and white photographs and negatives relating to the poultry industry in the United States during the early part of the twentieth century. There are also publications of the Food Research Laboratory of the USDA Bureau of Chemistry. Also included are correspondence, drawings, and plans for poultry processing devices submitted to the U.S. Patent Office. In addition, there are materials on the first National Chicken of Tomorrow contest in 1946; publications of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company; and lesson plans for a poultry course taught by Pierce at Iowa State College. The photographs in the collection document poultry processing, grading, and egg candling experiments conducted by the Bureau of Chemistry, U.S. Department of Agriculture (1912-1919); packing plants in Topeka, Kansas and Atlantic, Iowa (1910); poultry houses in Petaluma and Loomis, California (undated); a tour of Europe in 1924 coinciding with the World's Poultry Congress held in Barcelona, Spain; the Seventh World's Poultry Congress held in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1939; a caricature of Pierce, made in 1944; and a testimonial dinner for Pierce in 1963. Notable materials include a comprehensive survey of the rail shipment of iced poultry (1915-1919), field notes and photographs of rail icing stations in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Alabama; and three photo albums with field notes documenting poultry and egg processing in the U.S. (1910-1918).